Feelings and emotions
by mendesana
Summary: I'm not very good at summaries but what if Anya never died? What if there was a way to save Tondc from being destroyed? What happens after Lexa walks out on Clark leaving her alone at the gates of Mount Weather? What if...(fUTURE cLEXA)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own creativity and possible OC's (future chapters)**

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" _Emotions play out in the theater of the body. Feelings play out in the theater of the mind_ "

I read that in one of Dad's books, I wonder what he would think of me now, if he were alive. What he would think of what I've become? What I have done? All those people in Mount Weather who died. Dead by my hand. I had no choice my people needed me, I had to do something. There was no other way. There _Was_ no other way. I keep telling myself that, repeating it over and over again hoping that if I say it enough times it'll come true it'll feel true and wash away the guilt; clean my bloodied hands. But we all know that things aren't that simple. They never _are_.

" _For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first_."

Betrayed? Yes, though I find it really hard to put my feelings into words. That's how I'm feeling right now as though a piece of my heart have been torn, ripped away from me. She left me there to fend for myself. To die.

"The duty to my people comes first Clarke." I hear her say over and over again, she is their commander, she belongs to them. She made a deal with the mountain men behind my back. I couldn't believe it. She hated them as much as I did, maybe even more.

I can feel Bellamy's eyes following me out of camp Jaha's safety, he practicly begged me to stay but i cant. What i need right now is to put some distance between me and all of this. The further away the better.

"May we meet again." Her last words to me before signaling her troops and walk away.

"May we not."

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This is my first The 100 story be gentle. Small chapter? Yes but i hope it's enough to spite your curiosity...it get's better..promise.

I'm taking this story behond the sci-fi thing not that i dont like its just i prefer more of a supernatural nature. I've read a few fictions of the 100 and havent found any with this particular detail.

One more thing...i'll introduce Clarke to the dark side, not fully dark but not fully light either. Something tragic will happen to her after mount weather and that's all i'm sayin'.

Let me know what you think, ideas, thoughts are welcome...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: i own nothing but my own creativity and future Oc's

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I ALWAYS KNEW Mount Weather was too good to be true. The second I woke in their infirmary I felt it in my bones. I was told that everywhere I went was safe, that I'd be okay. Dante Wallace was his name, Mr President of Mount Weather. I met him after my first attempt to escape "prison". Poor Maya, she looked so freaked out by my little outburst of anger, it was a little excessive, well I did hold a piece of broken glass close to her throat.

Jasper looked so contented, so at home, my uneasiness towards Mount Weather and the mountain men did seem to upset him. He wanted so bad to find a place to belong to, no grounders, no fighting for his life and no one trying to kill him. He did survive a near death experience, the first day we sat foot on the ground. Jasper, Finn, Octavia, Monty and I set out to explore. Once we reached a river, Octavia decided that she was in a mood for a swim. Little did she know what was in the water. A snake bit her, larger than any normal kind I've ever read. It wrapped itself around Octavia dragging her to the bottom of the river. She did surface a few seconds later as we distracted it giving Octavia some time to swim to shore. That's not even the best part, we also found out we were not alone. We found this out after Jasper swung his way to the other side of the river and was pierced by a spear which no one saw coming. Crazy, I know. I hope he can forgive me someday. Him and Maya are close which doesn't help my case of getting us all out of this hell hole.

At my second attempt of escaping, I found out that the people of Mount Weather can't survive outside of their walls. A soldier was brought in with what it look like 3 degree burns on his upper body then a few hours later was fine. I had to get inside that infirmary and check out it all out. I did do that. There I sought a way out through the ventilation system, I crawl my way out only to find myself inside a room with two people hanging by their feet upside down and their blood was being sucked out towards some pipes. I heard some moaning and gasping from behind me and once I turn around I saw cages and in those cages were people, grounders. Hundreds of them. Which like me were immune to radiation. They were being bleed out and their blood was somehow being used to treat exposure from radiation.

I find Anya inside one of those cages and together we escaped Mount Whether through the riper tunnels and jumping off a cliff and into a river. After fishing me out of the river, Anya kindly hit me on the head and toke me has a price claiming that after I burned her 300 warriors she could not show up her face without a price. Therefore beginning our little trip around the woods.

We walked and ran for hours a lot of pushing and shoving later we finally broke silence, well I did actually.

"Anya we've been walking four hours, where are we going?" My lungs were burning but I kept going.

"Quiet!" She commands and pulls hard on my restraints.

"Why not just kill me and get it over with?" I ask breathless.

"You can tell the commander what the mountain men are doing."

"So let's work together we don't have to be enemies." I hurry up slightly to be next to her.

Anya scoffed at me. "And unite myself with someone has weak has you; I have what I need." She answers but before she turns and pulls me again.

"Hey we both want the same thing." I see her shift her weight from foot to foot and before she could say something else the Mountain Men find us again. The start shooting us with tranquilizer darts. I manage to take one from the nearest tree before we are on the run again.

We keep running trying to outrun our pursuers. We reach what seems to be a small pool of water with mud all around it.

"Down!" Anya commands quickly "You can't even walk in the woods without making noise."

"Well if I'm such a burden than cut me loose?" I growl at her and we continue walking.

"Heavy footing, broken branches you even smell like them." Anya states with a sneer.

"In case you've forgotten I came from space. There were no woods to walk in." I smirk at her confusion, I reach for the water to drink it and she slaps my hands.

"No, don't drink that!" She hisses at me.

"Then why are we stopping?" I ask frustration, all this being dragged around is getting on my nerves. She reaches for the muddied water and grabs a hand full of it then hits me on the face with it.

"You reek, cover yourself in it." Are you serious, did this bitch just tell me to do that? Ugh!

We cover ourselves quickly with the muddy water and keep moving. Further on we realize they are still following us.

"How are they still following us?" I ask baffled, this is almost impossible for them to do that.

Anya glares at me. "Because of you; time to end this" Anya snarls at me reaching for a rock next to her.

"Anya, I'm stepping where you're stepping, I'm covered in mud, we're not leaving a trail." I jump at a few steps back.

"They are following something." She's right but what are they following? Then it hits me.

"They are not following us, they're tacking us. Search yourself and if I'm right it should be like a small bump just under your skin." I instruct whilst searching for it on my body. Anya rips into her left sleeve and there is the tracer.

"You found it! Okay I can remove it, all I need is something sharp and sterile….." But before I can do anything else she bites down her on her wrist for and removes the tracer by spitting it off.

"I'm not getting back there." The look on her face was scary, I can't imagine what she went through. Oh wait yes I can. I saw it with my own eyes.

And the yanking continues.

She just bit her own arm and acts like nothing happened. These grounder are something I've never seen before, savages built for war that know nothing but war. I see her wound beginning to bleed out, her blood was dropping on the floor. We reach the river finally I can find my way to the dropship from here.

"Anya, you are still bleeding. At least let me bandage it before it gets infected or you bleed out." She turns and looks down at her arm as I take advantage of her distraction and hit her with the tranquilizer on the back of her neck. She falls down.

"I can find my way home from here." I mutter as I remove the bindings and put them on her, she looks woozy and disoriented a sign that the tranquilizer is working.

"You are my prisoner now." A smug crosses my lips as her eyes close. I look around looking for some way to take her with me because I can't just leave her here to be recapture or eaten by some wild animal. I wonder if she would do the same or any of them would. I build up an improvised stretcher with two long wooden sticks and some vines and put her on there. I make my way to the dropship.

We reach the dropship faster than I anticipated, the place still smelled of burned wood and flesh. It was here that Anya's warriors have been burned alive that night we were attacked. I see some blurry writing on the wall of the dropship, white chalk, my name was there but I can't decipher the rest of the message. I hear something a branch snapping and I look back startled. Anya is awake, dizzy but awake.

"Anya, wait." I raise my hands up trying to make her stop but she lunges towards me and I duck.

"Anya stop, we don't have-" she lunges at me again but this time she hits me across the face and I fall. I look up and she's smirking. I look to the side and grab a small knife then get back up.

"Anya I don't want to kill you." I point the knife at her hoping this would end here and neither of us would be hurt.

"Then you are the one that's going to die." She snaps and I try to cut her but she moves away whilst catching my hand. She takes the knife from me and cuts me on my belly then starts punching me in the face causing me to fall to the ground.

She runs towards me tackling me to the ground, she straddles me with the knife she tries to hit the final blow but I grab her injured arm and squeeze causing her to scream in agony. I smack the knife away and reach for the skull on my left. I hit across the head with the skull of her fallen warrior. She collapses to the ground and it's my turn to be on top. I punch her and keep punching her until I reach for the knife and ogle it for a few seconds. Her nose is pouring blood and so was her head. I could hear the squishy sound of her face against my fist as I hit her again and again. With the final blow I keep thinking, _kill? Not kill? Kill? Not kill?_

But I look up and see far away what looked like a balloon up in the sky. _Could it be? Could my people still be alive?_

"You fought well." I hear Anya mumble but my attention is elsewhere.

"I knew it, my people are out there." I gasp still recovering from the fight. "Anya, we have to go. My people are out there they can help us." I walk around her and grab the binding from the floor after she freed herself, before our friendly discussion and bind her hands again.

"C'mon." I help her up and we start walking towards the beacon.

It took a few hours before we reached my people's camp. We were tired, hungry, thirsty, walking around these woods for the last hours have been chaotic and we are in desperate need of rest. I really need a fluffy bed right now. Camp was made of a piece of the Ark, somehow my people found a way to make it come down to Earth. There was already a fence up, tents and patrols for what I could see.

"See I told you, my people are here."

"How many are there." Anya asks breathless looking at the camp.

"I don't know, a lot I hope." I really do. I turn to her reaching for her binding and setting her free. "I'm letting you go, I'm not weak and I'm not like you, our only change against mount weather is if we work together. To beat them we are going to need our technology and your knowledge of this world. We can't beat them on our own. I know my people will help but the real question here is will yours?" She takes a few seconds letting my words sink in.

"The commander was my second, I can get an audience." Yes, all I have to do now is talk to my people and get things going. I nod and we shake hands in agreement.

"Please hurry, we-" I hear a twig snap from my left. "Anya, look out." Before she could react I jump tackling her as gunshot is heard. I get hit on the shoulder.

"What w-" I hear her say under me and I roll over her, with my other hand I try to apply pressure to my shoulder. God damn it hurts.

She reaches for me but I yell. "Run Anya go. I'll be fine, just go." I can hear voices from down the trail. She takes a second before nodding and leaving. The voices approach and when I turn I'm hit in the head with the back of a riffle and all goes black.

"Ohhh my head." I wake up and I realize I was no longer in the woods or covered in mud. I was inside an improvised medical tent. There were crates and medical supplies all over. My clothes were new too and clean.

"Clarke?" I her to my right and what I see brought me to tears.

"Mom?" I whisper. "Is it really you?" She comes to me and kneels next to me, her yes tearing up just like mine.

"I'm here sweetheart, I'm here…" I reach for her and we give ourselves a tight hug. We remain like that for a few minutes.

"How? I saw your ship crash…"

"I wasn't on it, I'm here now." I move a little to the side and my left shoulder hurts.

"Ouch."

"Clarke you need to stay still, the bullet went in and out. You are going to be fine, but you need to rest." She informed me. I look at her jacket and I see a pin.

"I thought you've been thrown out of the council?"

"It's a chancellor's pin."

"Really? You?"

"Yeah, Thelonious didn't make it and Kane left two days ago to try and make peace with the grounders. To get you and the others back."

"Mom, the grounders didn't have us."

"Is she alright?" Byrne asks coming in the room.

"She will be…" my mother trails off

"I'm sorry ma'am we had no idea it was her. Where have you been?" Byrne asks me

"Mount weather. " I say

"The grounders took you to mount weather?" Byrne asked with a concerned tone.

"No the mountain men did." I answer trying to get up but my mother doesn't let me. "We have to get them out."

"We are not doing this right now." My mother chastise.

"Yes ma'am." Byrne leaves the room and it's just me and my mother. I look at her, I could feel tears beginning to form again.

"Hey, what's wrong?" my mother asks leaning close to me and holding my face with both her hands.

"I- th-I thought you were d-ead, I thou-" I can't hold them back anymore I start crying and my mother holds me tight and I embrace her. We were both crying now, I could hear her sob.

"I'm here, I'm right here." She says comforting me and I just hold her tighter.

"How long have I been a sleep?" I ask after looking around. I could see some light coming from the window.

"Ten hours." Wow, that's too long. I try to get up, my body still hurt but it's necessary.

"Hey, what are you doing it's too soon."

"Mom we need to move against mount weather, how many guards are here?"

"Clarke you need to rest."

"I don't need to rest I'm fine. I don't need you to protect me I'm not a little girl anymore. What I need is to save my friends." I sit up and reach for my left there was a clean pair of pants and a blue jacket.

"Ma'am?" Byrne reenters the room with a concerned look on her face.

"We've got movement in the north side of the woods."

"Grounder?" my mother asks concerned.

"I don't think so…" after fully dressed I exit the tent with my mother and on the left I see Raven siting on a crate.

"Hi" I say excited to see her again.

"Hi, I've been waiting here all night Abby said you needed to sleep." We hug, I missed her. I notice she has a brace around her left knee. Poor Raven.

"It sucks but I'm dealing with it." She tries to counter my concerned look with light humor.

"Open the gate." I hear my mother say from a few feet away to our left. I see Bellamy, Octavia, some girl I don't recognize and Monroe. I look at Raven and she just tells me to go.

I run to them, and hug Bellamy the sight of him lifts a weight of my shoulders, I thought he was dead after I gave the order to close the dropship's door before igniting that large group of grounders. We hold each other fiercely. I hear Octavia mutter something and I hug her too.

"I'm glad you are ok." she whispers in my ear.

"You too." I say to her rubbing her shoulder.

"How many came with you?" Bellamy asks, I could see how tired he look, bruises, cuts all over him.

"None." The disappointment on their faces was heartbreaking I couldn't bring anyone else with me.

"Where is Finn?" I look around and he is nowhere to be found.

"Looking for you."

"We have to find him" I say and all of them nod. I hardly think my mother will just let us leave.

"How did you escape?" Octavia asks and they all look at me with an interested look waiting for my answer.

"That's an interesting story." I state and they laugh.

"I fled through the mines. I brought someone with me. Anya, the ground leader we found at the drop sight."

"What?" Octavia blurts out.

"You took with you a grounder instead of releasing our friends?"

"She was inside a cage, there were grounders inside cages there, there was a room filled with them, the mountain men are using the grounders for some kind of experiment."

"What do you mean?" Bellamy asked folding his arms across his chest.

"I don't know but my guess, after what I've seen there, it has something to do with their blood. When I was in the infirmary there were people there, laying in some sort of coma with some machine plucked into them, it was filtering their blood or something." By this time they looked shocked at my news.

"The mountain men can't live outside of their mountain, it's a closed environment. They have their own fresh water reservoir and hydroelectric dam, the air there is filtered also."

"Do you think they will do the same to our friends?" Rave asked leaning on her good leg.

"I have no doubt, we and the grounders share the same immunity to the outside. They want it, they have spent the last 94 years trapped inside that mountain, they have resources and reason to crave freedom outside their prison." I rub my arms trying not to think what the mountain men are doing to my friends at the moment.

"So let's go, we are wasting time." Octavia hurries.

"It's not that simple O." Bellamy informs.

"Why?" she asks annoyed.

"We have to go through my mother first, and I don't think she will lets us go just like that." They frown looking to the ground and I sigh.

We go inside the ark and directly to my mother. I tell her exactly what I told my friends and she gathers an emergency meeting with the council members. We are left in the hall while they discuss what to do. Bellamy kept passing back and forth, Octavia was leaning against the wall and I. This waiting is getting on my nerves.

"Why is it taking so long?" I whine and Bellamy chuckles.

"Patience, princess, these things take time, apparently." I scoff

"I hate when you call me that." I growl at him, he chuckles again and so did Octavia.

The door to the council room opens and my mother comes out. I know that look, I'm not gonna like what she has to say.

"Clarke mount weather is going to have to wait."

"What? You cant just cut them loose."

"Sweetheart, we don't have the man power to send two separate rescue missions and protect our camp."

"Mom, they are gonna hurt my friends, even after what I've told you how can you stand there and do nothing?" I ask passing around the room.

"If what you said is true, that means the mountain men need those 47, and that's a good thing because if they didn't they would have been dead by now."

"Mom, they are in danger, they are either going to get themselves killed or they are going to make things worse for them and the grounders who we need to get our people outside of mount weather. The mountain men are bleeding the grounders dry and they will do the same to our friends once they figure out that we share the same type of immunity to outside environment."

"Clarke I know this is unfair but my priority has to be with chancellor Kane if there is any chance for peace."

"Anya can get us an audience I told you that."

"Anya? Seriously? The same Anya that tried to kill you several times? Why haven't we heard from her? She probably used you to get away, I'm sorry Clarke but I'd rather put my faith with Kane."

"But-"

"I'm sorry the decision has been made." Before my mother could turn Bellamy spoke up.

"You are sorry? Finn and Murphy are out there looking for your daughter with guns you gave us and you are sorry. If you can't spent the men power sends us we know the terrain we-"

"Absolutely not."

"Mom-"

"No, I just got you back." the look on my mother's face, I saw fear she was terrified that she'd lose me again.

"Abby." my mother assistant came in the hall

"We need you in medical…...er...I'm sorry to interrupt" he informed apologetically, my mother looked at him than me.

"You should go." I tell her and she sighs rubbing the back of her head.

"Byrne." she calls to the lieutenant behind her.

"Yes ma'am?"

"No one is to leave this camp. Understood?" her eyes never left mine.

"Yes ma'am." My mother leaves with her assistant and I look at Byrne which she looks back and sighs. I rub my injured shoulder and close my eyes taking a deep breath. Then I turn to Bellamy and whisper close to him.

"We are gonna need guns." he smirks and says.

"I'll take care of it. Meet me on the other side of the metal plate close to the fence in 15."

"Don't take too long, we have to do this know." He nods and leaves. I look back at Byrne she was talking to one of the chancellors she eyed me suspiciously and I turn to the exit. I gather some supplies, put them on a backpack and exit the room, outside I see the search party assigned to find senator Kane leaving the front gate. I walk around waiting a few more minutes before meeting Bellamy and after I'm done waiting I head there.

I see Raven carrying a large bag, Bellamy is already there.

"I got you a couple extra clips just in case." Bellamy opens the bag and retrieves a rifle and some clips.

"Hey, my mother is in surgery and I saw the search party looking for Kane leave the gate a few minutes ago if we are to leave is now." I reach for the bag and take a rifle and two clips and place them on my jacket pocket.

"Did you find Octavia?" Bellamy asks Raven but a second later Octavia shows up

"No, I found you." she comes close eying Bellamy in the eyes.

"I'm not leaving here without you."

"Octavia." I try to call her down.

"Finn and Murphy are heading to Lincoln's village. I've been there, have you? Have she?" She pointed at me and Bellamy, he smirked and I chuckle.

"Are you done?" He asked amused and Octavia shrugs annoyed.

I hand him a back pack and he takes it holding it in his hands and handed her the pack.

"What's this?" she asks pretending not to know.

"Your pack, lead the way" Bellamy says and she smirks satisfied. She takes a step towards the fence but before the second one Raven stops her.

"Whoa, not so fast, Pocahontas." Raven uses her clutch to touch the fence and it shows that it still is electrified.

"I thought you said you had this?" I ask Bellamy and Raven answers.

"I got it, relax." She pulls out a radio of her pocket and contacts Wick.

"Shut it down Wick." she holds the radio close to her whispering. There were two guards not to far from us if they see us we are toast. But we hear Raven's radio beeping and she touches the fence with her clutch again and it's off.

"Thanks Raven." I whisper and the three of us go through the wires and get on our way out of camp Jaha. The light was fading, creating new shadows and dark patches around me. Eyes glimmered from tree hollows. The wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot. I moved faster, ignoring the briars that caught at my jeans, the damp leaves that grimed my skin so we decided we should set up camp and rest. Bellamy took first watch.

"I'll take the second." I said and he nodded.

"Good night."

"Good night" he said.

I slept for a few hours, my shoulder felt better but it still hurt a bit every time I turned before i realized I couldn't sleep anymore. I wake up and see Bellamy looking right at me, he looked thoughtful almost upset.

"Last time I saw you, you were closing the dropship door." I flinched at his tone, I remember the thought, the possibility that I might have killed him. "Had to be done." he said looking at me.

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"I'll sleep when Finn and Murphy are back." I sigh sitting and folding my legs.

"You haven't seen him Clarke, losing you, the others, the war changed him, he executed the grounder that drew us the map, pulled the trigger without even blinking and walked away." Bellamy's words hit me like a punch to the stomach. They cant be real, Finn wouldn't do that.

"That doesn't sound like Finn." I hope I'm right

"No, it doesn't." Bellamy shakes his head staring at the fire.

"I saw what he was capable of and still let him go with Murphy and two rifles."

"I'm sure that had to be done too." I make his words my own. He looks at me nodding I see his hands shake a little. He looked to tired and regretful.

"When we got back to the dropship and no one was there we assumed it was the grounders."

"Off course you did, you couldn't have known it was the mountain men, no one could have" I try to reassure him.

"Are the mountain men really doing all those things you said?" He asked not looking at me.

"I hope I'm wrong Bellamy, I really do, but I'm not going to stand her and wait it out."

"First we find Finn and Murphy and then we get our people out of mount weather." We both nod in agreement

"And Lincoln." Octavia says now fully awake. "I think we've slept long enough." she gets back up and ready's herself to leave, me and Bell do the same.

First light came and we were already walking for a while, we found the statue on Bellamy's map. Suddenly Octavia stops staring at the statue's back.

"What's wrong O?" he asks reaching for her shoulder.

"The reapers came from there." she points straight ahead.

"I couldn't save him Bell, I couldn't save him." Bell holds Octavia tightly while she cries the loss of Lincoln.

"We will find him O, I promise." He says holding her face with both hands. She nods wiping her tears and continuing showing us the way. Further on the path we hear gun shooting it came from the left so we hurry ourselves. Bellamy leads the way now. We could see a small village from a few feet away, we moved faster. More gunshots and now we reach for our rifles and prepare for confrontation. People are screaming, scared. The gunshots stop, we enter the village by the left and once there we find them, we find Finn and Murphy but that's not all that we find, we also find bodies on the ground, grounders with bullet holes in them. Octavia runs forward kneeling close to a boy, he couldn't be older than us. Oh my god, they are dead because Finn shot them. They are dead.

I see people grieving, holding their loved one close to them, their cries echoing in my ears. Finn is just there, hands down barely holding to his rifle. He smiles at me and takes a few steps towards me.

"I found you." he whispers, another step. For one of his steps I take two backwards.

"W-what h-ave you done."

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Here it is chapter 2 i may have to re-update it again it's late and i cant see words in front of me anymore so let me know what you think...ideas and constructive criticism is welcome


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: i own nothing but my own characters and creativity. And there it is i'd like to thank "XRubbySlippersX" for the help.

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 **Two days later…**

Ten minutes in the infirmary and my mother still haven't said a word to me. She is still mad that I left camp with the others against her will. Raven told me my mother had confronted her and while doing it she slapped Raven when she denied any involvement.  
"You are still mad." I say to her when she finished changing the bandage covering my shoulder.

"I'm not mad." She answer not looking at me.

"That wasn't a question. I know you are still mad, mom, but I had to do it. I hope you of all people can understand that."

My mom shook her head. "I understand that my daughter went behind my back when I specifically told her not to."

"I was right, you are still mad." I smirk and she sighs rubbing her forehead with one hand.

"Clarke, you are my daughter and I'm not just your mother but also the chancellor too, what do you think will happen if all of the sudden people stop following the rules around here? We would have anarchy and we cannot afford to have that." She scolds being very serious. I sigh deeply and look down. She comes to me and gently raises my chin with one finger.

"I know you miss your friends and desperately want them back but we need to think this through. I expect retaliation for what Finn did. We are all fighting for survival down here just like we were up there on the Ark, the difference is that we are not alone anymore. There are others here, others with their own rules and laws."

"I just want them back." I whisper and she hugged me rubbing my back.

"I know baby I know, we will get them back don't worry." She comforts and I hug her back.

"Are you going to Finn's hearing?" She hands me my jacket and my blood turns cold. She notices my hesitation, I just take my jacket and put it on, still not answering.

"I thought it was a private hearing."

"It is." Her eyes narrow at me.

"Then why are you asking me?" I ask suspiciously

"No reason." She turns and walks to her desk.

I've just spent the last 6 hours filing reports, checking inventory, moving crates with supplies, hell my back is needing some time to relax. I make my way to our improvised outdoors bar sit on a chair and order a drink. "Man that hit the spot." I almost choke when Bellamy squeezes my shoulder and sit across from me.

"Easy princess, it's just me." He raises both his hands up in surrender.

"Shit Bellamy, I thought you were my mother." He chuckles and I smirk. "She grounded me can you believe that?"

"The nerve on that woman, so that's why you are all worked up." He chuckled folding his arms across his chest.

"Not funny Bell, I can't turn my neck on the opposite direction because of how stiff it is." We both laughed. "Well she had to find a worthy punishment for me, I left camp without her permission, and she couldn't let other people think that just because I'm the chancellor's daughter I get special treatment when it comes to punishments." His face turns serious.

"If it makes you feel better I'm on guard duty"

"But you are not a soldier." I answer back

"No, but it gives the real guards a chance to keep an eye on me." True

"I'm getting a really bad feeling Bell, like something really bad is about to happen." He nods sitting on the chair in front of me and leans in.

"I hear you Clarke." I unzip my jacket and remove a piece of paper with the map I drew of Mount Weather.

"That looks complex, no wonder no one can get in." He tells me with a frown.

"It's a labyrinth. We got to the dam through this tunnel, and it's all connected to the riper tunnels, that's our way in."

"Sure, if we can get pass the mountain men and reapers." He is right, it is easier said than done. "I swear to god, if your mother doesn't sanction the mission soon I'm going by myself." He informs leaning back on the chair.

"You won't be by yourself, I'm going with you." He nods. I hear voices coming from behind Bellamy and when I look, Finn is coming out from his hearing. He looks behind him and also sees Finn. My jaw tightens and Bell notices.

"I guess the Inquisition is over." Bellamy mutters ironically. "How is Finn doing anyway?" Bell asks me

"I have no idea, I haven't spoken to him since we got back." The boy in front of me raises his eyebrow. "I don't know what to say." I hurry and he looks away. "He just kept shooting those people." Bellamy sighs

"We are at war Clarke. We've all done bad things." I stiff at those words.

"There is a difference between war and murder." I growl leaning close to Bell and he scratches his neck.

"Hey." Finn greets looking at me and Bell

"Hey" Bell greets back, words refuse to leave my mouth. Bellamy looks between me and Finn for a few seconds before deciding to pay us a round of drinks. I could feel the tension raising and just wanted a whole to crawl into. Anywhere other than here would be fine right now.

"Mount Weather?" he asks looking at the map on the table and I nod "So what's the plan?"

"I'm still working on it." I answer quickly not looking at him. He realizes I'm avoiding him, I see the hurt look on his face. Murphy comes to our table telling a weird joke about Monty or whatever.

"Have you told her we were cleared?" Murphy asks sipping on his drink looking between me and Finn.

"No" Finn looks at me in the eye rubbing his palms together. I shift on my seat and look away.

"Well looks like our pardon for survival includes our time on the ground, er. bigger fish to fry I guess." He continues.

"We did what we had to do..." Finn added gazing at me and when he realized I wasn't looking at him he sit up and walked away.

"Whooo, trouble in paradise." Murphy joked and it ticked me off.

"Just because they pardoned you doesn't me I have."

"Clarke. Beat it Murphy." Raven showed up from the left with a concerned look on her face, once Murphy was at a distance she continued. "I know why we haven't heard from the others Ark stations."Ooohhh this gotta be good. "Mount Weather is jamming us…"

"Show me." I follow her to her work station and she shows me what she's been working on with the radio.

"I tweak the resonator and got this." some weird static came on. "It's on every frequency, long range communications are totally screwed it's also why the range on our walkies sucks, it's the same signal Monty heard on the black box at the Exodus ship."

"Mount Weather crashed the Exodus ship." I concluded and she nodded. "Can you get around the signal?" I circle around the table and get close to Raven.

"Around it? No, but if I can get close enough to the tower that broadcast it…..i can make it go Boom…" she smirks, be both do.

"No one I going anywhere…" I hear my mother coming through the door. Fuck me. She has that weird look in her eyes, angry weird, crazy look in her eye. Byrne is with her.

"Mom, listen to me …" I hurry approaching her.

"What do I have to do to get through to you? Do I have to ground you again? Harder this time? You and your friends are not soldiers, and continuing to act like you are puts lives at risk." She scolds.

"Y-you don't understand, Raven found something, mount weather is jamming our communications..."

"It's true there could be other ark stations in the ground." Raven reassures.

"And more guards you said we don't have enough people to fight a two front war. Mom, we are already fighting one."

"The grounder retaliation for the massacre can happen at any minute and when it does we are going to need every available man to defend this camp."

"So let us go." I try settling this dispute.

"You are not going to stop are you?" my mother eyes me with a small grin.

"No, not until I have my friends back, here, safe."

"Okay, but I'm going with you…" WhAT?

"Ma'am, I just…" Byrne tries to intervene but is cut off by my mother.

"It' been quiet for two days, maybe Kane is making headway with the grounders commander…"

"Or maybe he is already dead and they are massing against us as we speak…" the lieutenant warned.

"Maybe, which is why we need more guards…" Byrne shifted from foot to foot and sighed

"Then it settled, we are going back to Mount Weather…." I conclude.

"Yes, prepare for the trip, I'm going to gather some guards and we will be on our way as soon as possible, meet me in the front gate in 30 minutes."

"Mom, bring a tent, tell to do the same…"

"Shelter for the acid fog?" she asks and I nod. My mother leaves Raven's shop accompanied by the lieutenant.

"I'll meet you in 30, I need to talk to Bellamy and Octavia." I glance at Raven and we both nod.  
After preparing myself for the trip I leave my room and look around camp for Bellamy and Octavia. I find them near the bar.

"Hey guys we ar-…"

"We already know…" Octavia interrupted showing me her pack.

"No you don't…" I smirk at her raised eyebrow. I pull them both to the side away from prying eyes.

"I need you two to sneak out and look for a way in into mount weather once no one is looking." Bellamy chuckles and I folded my arms across my chest defiantly.

"What's so funny?" I ask annoyed.

"What does your mother say about that?" his smirk grew when I lacked the words to answer back.

"She doesn't know does she?" This time was Octavia mocking me.

"What do you think?" I answer half laughing

"Relax princess, we're on it." I growl at the nickname and Octavia chuckles.

"Be careful." They both nod and I walk away.

 **30 minutes later**

We were all at the gate ready to leave, a few guards, my mother, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy, Finn and I. "Okay, let's move." My mother orders and we are on our way.

"I can't believe they let Finn come." Octavia muttered as we get further into the thick forest.

"He is the best tracker we've got. Don't forget to look up the grounders use the trees, that's how we lost John Mbenge." Bellamy warns and I see some guards start to worry and looking up searching for any type of threat.

"You were right, it was a good thing we brought them." My mother talking about the guards. "I know you are worried about Finn."

"Thank you for voting to clear him."

"I thought he was rescuing his friends, the thing is will he be capable of clearing himself?" How about me? Ever since Finn came from that hearing I haven't been able to look at him in the eye, he killed all those people while looking for me. We keep walking another hour before we reach a clearing, Raven starts to look around with her binoculars looking for those towers.

"Up there I see them." She takes a step back and hands me the object.

"I see them but it will be dark soon so we will not spot the traps we should set up camp and leave at first light." I inform handing my mother the binoculars and she takes a look too.

"We are missing two." she glances at me disapprovingly already knowing I had something' to do with it.

"Where the hell are they?" she asks taking a few steps towards me and when I don't answer she continues.

"Clarke we are in enemy territory and their lives are my responsibility."

"They went to find a way in."

"A way in? That's not what this mission is about."

"It is for them."

"Find them." she orders Scott.

"Yes, ma'am, you two with me." the other two follow.

"I'm going with them." Finn informs grabbing a rifle. I admit the second he does that I hold my breath.

"Finn don't-" I start but Raven cuts me off.

"Finn we need you here." Raven reaches for him trying to make him stay but he snaps pulling away.

"Why? So can keep an eye on me? You'll be able to look me in the eye to do that." He walks away throwing the rifle to the ground.

"I'll go get him." I reach for Raven's arm and squeeze a little and she nods. I run after him it took me only a few seconds to reach him, his pace was long I could see the stiffness on his movements.

"Finn wait." he turns quickly at the sound of my voice.

"It was an accident." the sorrow in his eyes was evident, I take a few steps closer and we hear a distant boom and then a weird sound started closing in.

"What is that sound?" I ask worried about his mental state.

"Acid fog." Fuck

"Run." We both start running through the woods. I grab my walkie and hope the others can hear me.

"Acid fog take cover if you can hear me use the tents."

"My tent, I forgot my pack." My heart was racing, we were running from the fog like our lives depended on it, they kinda did.

"It's okay we can make it to the bunker." Finn hurried and took point.

"You okay?" he asked breathless after closing the hatch.

"Yeah, I'm good." my throat was burning I take a look around the bunker with my flashlight and see a dead body on the floor, it looked grounder, it was the grounder Bell said Finn executed. His hands were tied behind his back there was a pool of blood coming out of his head I could see pieces of brain matter and bone scattered on the floor and nearby wall. Finn notices were my eyes were and rushed to cover the body the second he looks at me I look away. The stench was starting to cause nausea, the corpse was already decomposing.

Finn gets up and starts looking around for some candles and matches, a few minutes later the small bunker was no longer the dark refuge we first came into. He sat down on a chair to my left, and just sat there holding a piece of folded paper. I soon realized that I hadn't moved an inch since I saw the dead body on the ground. I just stood there looking at it now covered by a curtain. I start passing back and forth wondering if my mother, Raven, Bell, Octavia found some shelter, wondering if they went into cover in time.

"Stop, I'm sure they are fine." Finn finally breaks the long silence between us. My back is still turned my body froze at the sound of his voice. His sweet and gentle voice I once thought.

"So first you can't even look at me," I turn and look at him in the eye. "and now you are looking at me like I'm the enemy."

"I'm not looking at you like that." I say in a almost whisper

"Well you don't look at me the way you used to." He whispered back hurt. I look down not daring to say anything else. He sits up and inhales deeply.

"I've been waiting for the right moment to give you this, I'm starting to feel like the right moment will never come…" he reaches for his jacket pocket and hands me my father's watch. I gasp at the sight I thought I would never see that again, the mountain men took it from me after taking us into the mountain.

"I know how much it mean to you."

"Where did you get this?" I ask my fingers brushing the item, images of my father filled my head and heart and a tear drops from my eyes. Finn takes a step closer to me and brushes away the tear from my face, his hand was warm, he pulls his hand away and turns.

"It was around his neck." That grounder held his death sentence around his neck, once Finn saw my father's watch around his neck, the grounder was marked to die. His death was on me, just like all the others he killed from that village, he did it for me. I hold the watch with both hands, tears flowing out of me.

"They were unarmed." I whisper remembering Finn shooting all those people.

"Clarke we hav- have to go." He walks away from my gaze.

"I d-don't even know who you are anymore." He stops close to the closed hatch. I hear him sigh, his shoulders were down, and so was his head.

"Neither do I." He breaks down to his knees.

"What have we become?" I ask gazing into the candle light in front of me.

"Clarke we should go it will be dark soon we have to meet the others at the rendezvous point, your mother is probably worried." He sits up and climbs the metal stairs opening the hatch.

"It's clear." I hear him say from the outside. I wipe the tears from my eyes on my sleeve and climb out of the bunker, Finn was already a few feet away. I close the hatch and follow Finn to the rendezvous. Once there I see my mother and Raven. I hug her fiercely.

"Bellamy and Octavia?" I ask looking around and not finding them.

"They know the rendezvous is here." She smiles reassuring me.

"Have you tried the radio?" I ask eager to know if the plan worked.

"Still Jammed." Raven said.

"You didn't blow up the tower?" I ask confused.

"Raven figured out a way that we could listen to Mount Weather…if we took out the antenna we wouldn't be able to do that." She smirks and so I do.

"What about the other Ark stations?"

"We don't know if they made it but what we do know is that 47 of our people are being held prisoner inside Mount Weather and we need to get them back." she smiles warningly and we hug again. I sigh contended that mom and Raven are okay.

Suddenly a small group of grounders swoop down on us from all angles. "Ma'am get behind us." One of the guards warns but the grounders had us outnumbered. Mother grabbed me and pulled me behind her, Finn did the same with Raven. Our two guards had their guns pointed at them but there were seven of them and only two of us had guns, on our hands I mean. The grounders surrounded us aiming their arrows and swords at us, their body language meant business.  
"What are they doing this close to the mountain?" I hear Finn mutter.

"Chil yu daun!" (Stand down) I hear from behind a tree and the grounders eased their aggression. The voice was calm and authoritarian, it sounded familiar. Finally a face to match the voice. It was Anya.

"Anya?" I gasp and my mother looks back at me surprised.

"That's Anya?" She asks, both Finn and Raven glance towards us. Anya smirks.

"What do you want?" Raven asks angrily but Finn pulls her back towards him. If Anya realized her presence she didn't show it, the grounders still surrounded us.

"I came to deliver a massage." She eyed me, she was wearing typical grounder clothes, close to the ones she had the first time we've met at that bridge and her war paint, black circles around her eyes.

"From the commander?" I ask curious taking a step from behind my mother towards Anya.

"In a sense." She smirked looking to the side. He glances to her right and signals one of the men behind her and he leaves his position and went into the woods, returning a few seconds later with a man…a tall, beaten black man. The grounder that went back to fetch him held a knife to his throat, Jaha was on his knees, he had several cut and bruises all over his face and body.

"Jaha..." My mother gasps and steps forward. The grounder group raise their weapons at my mother and she steps back. Anya signals them to stand down again.

"What have you done to him, you monsters?" My mother growls and Anya laughs.

"Not me Skaikru, the commander. She knows about the massacre and she's here for retribution." Anya grabs the hilt of her sword I swear I could hear her knuckles snap.

"We had nothing to do with that…" My mother hurries, I see her swallow hard.

"That's what the other one said…"

"Marcus? He's alive?" mom asked

"It doesn't matter, the commander wants justice and she will have it…" Anya's gaze turns serious and the grounders get agitated. I look to the side, to Finn I could tell he was nervous he looked back at me and then back at Anya.

"We will find the culprit and he…or she will pay for it, grounder justice demands it...jus drein jus daun." She growls stepping forward towards me.

"You have two days, leave this place or all of you will die." She eyeballs me and then signals the grounders to leave and they disperse. The grounder that held Jaha leaves last. My mother runs to Jaha and holds him, he welcomes her embrace gasping for air.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my own characters and creativity, i hope you enjoy it._

* * *

It's been a day since Anya showed up in the woods carrying Jaha also demanding our depart from her commander's lands. The people are on edge, demanding to know what course to take, a response from our council, our leader, my mother.

"Clarke you haven't stopped passing back and forth for almost an hour, a few more minutes and you will open a trench on the floor." Finn's humorous words distract me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I look up from my feet towards him and he's smiling back at me. "Sorry I was thinking." I wave him off and continue my line of thought.

"Clarke." he walks to me, grabs my hands and squeezes gently. "It's going to be okay, I'm sure you mother and Jaha will think of something." He reassures rubbing both my forearms and I sigh deeply.

"Bellamy and Octavia haven't returned yet, my mother is still in there with Jaha for almost a full morning and grounder warriors may show up at any moment and…" Finn hugs me rubbing my back, I hug him back my heart was pounding and this wait is driving me crazy.

"Relax Clarke, breathe, yes that's it." I do has he says and breathe, trying to relax. His hair smelled of ash and pine trees, his touch was comfortable and relaxing, slowly I relax into his the embrace.

"I'm sorry it's just." I say backing away slowly from his arms.

"I understand." He says tucking some of my blonde hair behind my ear.

"Finn I..." he steps closer eyeing my lips, his mouth curved into a smile and I chuckled.

"What?" he murmured, slowly, sensuously.

"Nothing and don't even think about it you." I poke him and he chuckles.

"Clarke..." I hear from behind me and it is Byrne and another guard.

"What's wrong?" I ask her and there is a concerned look on her face.

"Have you seen Bellamy and Octavia?" She asks and I shrug, she tensed and shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"What is it?" Finn asks and she sighs.

"A small patrol left this morning to scout the area for grounder troops and still haven't returned they were supposed to be back by now and you mother is still inside with Jaha and I don't have news to give her." she rubs her forehead, concern spread across her face.

"We can look for them." Finn added and Byrne stiffened.

"No, Abby would kill me if I'd sent you out there with the grounder threat so close."

"Finn can track them, he's the best tracker we got and I can tend to their wounds if they are hurt, maybe that's the problem, maybe they are hurt and can't come back because of it and I can help." I urge stepping close to her

"You can't argue with that logic." Finn adds and Byrne exhales deeply.

"C'mon we'll be quick, it's better than being here, I can't stand the wait it's driving me crazy." I plead.

"Fine but if you're not back in 4 hours I'm sending a search party after you."

"If my mother hasn't killed you by then." I joke and she growls giving me a narrowed look.

"C'mon, let's go, we will start close to the river and work our way from there." We both grab a backpack, a rifle and head into the woods in search of the missing scouts.

A few minutes into the woods we reach the river bend. "Do you see anything that might help us find those scouts?" I ask Finn, he was crouching down feeling the ground for clues, fresh footprints, anything that might help us on our search.

"Why princess, are you worried we might not come back in time before your mother notices you are out? Again?" I couldn't see his face but by his tone I could since his ironic laugh.

"You've never seen my mother angry have you? Right now you may think that the grounders are our biggest threat but wait until she has one of her fits and you'll see what fear really looks like." He chuckled and I continued scanning the woods around us for a potential ambush.

"Hmm…" I hear him mutter and I turn facing him.

"What is it?" I ask closing in.

"There are at least 3 different sets of foot prints here, two share a similar pattern and the other is different almost none existent…" he informs pointing to the ground were the footprints were.

"The scouts were here? Who does the other set belong too? Grounder?" I turn again looking around for something in the woods, maybe we are being watch.

"It's possible." he moves away to the left close to a tree and analyzes its bottom.

"Anything?" I ask curious.

"They headed north, we should follow in that direction."

"Okay let's go."

We head north, up river, Finn leads the way only a few feet away, his expertise is used fully, he is smart, resourceful and capable of finding is way in or out of the woods. I begin to think that he would thrive has a grounder. We were walking through an umber-brown, ancient forest. It reeked of age. Its woody incense was from decades of snapping branches crashing to the forest's floor and rotting silently. The composting, organic smell rose up in waves like a miasma. Every sprawling tree we passed under reminded me of a watchful guardian, a silent sentinel of the groves, I don't know why but this forest, to me, feels very spiritual, like I'm being watched or judged.

 _Crack._ A twig just crunched under my feet and Finn looks back at me shushing me.

"What?" I say annoyed and he smiles signaling me to come closer. He was kneeling down close to a large broken tree branch.

"Look." he points at a deer a few feet away heating some leaves from a tree. A troupe of shambling badgers crossed the winding trail in front of us at one point.

Finn stands up and closes in on the wild soul in front of us, the deer's head peeps up and looks Finn in the eye. For a second Finn freezes afraid he might scare the creature, but nothing happens the animal just goes back to what he was doing, heating lunch. Surprisingly the deer lets Finn approach him and pet him. The deer sniffs Finn's hand and gently chews on Finn's jacket sleeve. Cute. Must be his kind soul.

"Clarke, come meet my new friend."

"Friend? You just met and you're already friends?" I joke approaching them carefully.

The deer looks at me raising its head, I see his ears wiggle a little and so did his tail. But his eyes, something in his eyes baffled me, I feel the area around us change. Then a finger of supernal light poked through the misty mesh. It was followed by a whole loom of light, filtering down in seams of gold. Like the laminar glow of the gods, it chased the shadows, banished the gloom and spilled into spaces where the mist once stalked. The flute piping of a songbird split the silence just as the forest became flooded with light.

A fusillade of trilling and warbling detonated all around me as the primordial forest came alive with the troubadours of the trees. I darted between shafts of lustrous-gold light as I went, admiring the butterflies. They pirouetted in the air, their wings like little ripples of silk.

The glory of the forest was revealed in the birthstone-bright light. Almond-brown trees stood serenely, awash with a tender glow. Their bark looked like riffled toast and gems of amber clasped their crusty exterior. The first blush of the morn gave the leafy bower a green-going-to-gold complexion.

"Clarke, Clarke?" I hear Finn's voice but I can't see him, it's just me and the deer. "Clarke?" Finn shakes me and it's like I wake up from a trance. Finn gently grabs my face with both hands and a concerned look in his face.

"What?" I say shaking my head a little.

"Are you okay?" he asked

"Yeah, yeah I'm good… I just…..I'm good." I look past Finn and the deer was no longer there. "Where is your friend?" I ask pointing to the side.

"He ran away the second he saw you." What?

"I don't think you are his type" he joked and went around me. When we were leaving, I risked a glance over my shoulder. The forest glade looked freeze frame perfect in the enhanced light.

We go back to our search, north up river. "Look there are signs of a struggle, bullet casings, heavy footprints and…" he signals to a broken branch tainted with blood. Finn pick it up and shows it to me.

"It's coagulated it's not possible." I pick up the branch from his hand and analyze the blood.

"Why not?" Finn asks confused.

"Because blood doesn't do that until after you are dead." Finn's eyes dilated and he looks around looking for more blood.

"Zombies?" Finn picks up his weapon and looks around looking for targets. I laugh.

"No silly, zombies dont exist, whatever happened here they didn't leave the bodies behind. They are carrying them." _Where to? I wonder._

"What if it's the reapers?" Finn asked.

"It could be, we are close to the mountain. Let's keep looking."

It was spirit refreshing to smell the mulch mix of the forest's perfume. We ate a few windfall apples and they were mead sweet with a bitter twist. It was only after we got the stomach cramps that we regretted it. We've been searching for the scouts for almost two hours and still we haven't found them, only superficial clues and even that didn't sound good.

"Let's take a little short cut here." We head up a small hill when we hear a loud screaming sound. Finn and I exchange glances and we run up the hill, once almost at the top we crawl the remaining inches to avoid detection.

We witness a fight between two groups of grounders and reapers. Men were snarling and squealing as the ground became greasy with gore, their weapons were clanging and clangorous under the seething, spite-filled sky. The reapers had been beaten, two of the grounders left standing start to search the reaper bodies for something when the supposed dead reaper grabs the men by his throat and bites down his neck. The grounder men falls to his knees mercury-red blood drizzled from his neck to the ground. The other grounder runs to his friend trying to save him but it was too late, the reaper was now standing, smirking, teasing the other grounder to come to his death.

"Zack!" the other man screams unsheathing his weapons and lunging himself at the reaper.

The reaper was bigger, looked stronger too, but how could he still be standing with blood pouring from him? The grounder jumps trying to hit the reaper with a front kick but is knocked down with a punch.

"He's gonna kill him." Finn warns, I look between the two men raise up my rifle and shoot the reaper in the head before he could slash the grounder with his axe. The grounder looks at me I couldn't see his face, it was covered with a mask and some paint. He looked scared, he grabbed his sword and stood up with his sword raised and ready to strike.

"It's okay, we are not here to fight." Finn stands up, lowers his rifle and takes small steps down the small hill. I keep my rifle raised and ready for something to pop up.

"Clarke." Finn calls and signals me to lower my weapon and come down to them. I take another look around and lower my rifle, slightly, and go down the hill, slowly.

"Can you understand us?" Finn asks approaching the grounder slowly. The grounder looked ready to pounce maybe due to the adrenalin still flowing through his veins.

"We are not here to fight, we heard screaming and ran here, we are looking for two of our people, have you seen them?" Finn says still approaching slowly.

"Grounders are like wolfs, they travel in packs, something' is not right here." the grounder narrowed his eyes at my words of warning, I can see his shoulders stiffen.

"Clarke, calm down it's over." Finn tries to calm the situation down a notch.

"Klarke kom skaikru? Skaiheda?" The grounder asks his body language changes it becomes hardened. He knows my name. I raise my rifle back at him and he shifts his body weight from foot to foot.

"Whoa…." Finn raises his hand up at him.

"Let's calm down, there is no need to….." suddenly we are surrounded by another group of reapers, growling and snarling at us. Their diabolical presence chilling to the bone. We form a circle and start shooting them down. The grounder man breaks formation once most of the reapers are dead around us. He fights the last two reapers at incredible speed and guile, he is a formidable fighter. But he goes down after an arrow hits him on the shoulder. I look to the side and a reaper with a bow aims his next shoot at Finn.

"Watch out!" I yell at Finn, he turns fast enough to duck and shoot the reaper down.

"I'm fine I'm okay, check him he was shot." He points at the grounder on the ground with an arrow in his shoulder.

As I approach him he growls and reaches for a knife on his belt.

"Relax I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm a healer I can help you, unless you prefer it to fester you get sick and die?" Finn was already on his feet alongside me.

The grounder put his knife down but not away he kept it on his hand. I remove my backpack and rifle and settle them on the ground, I reach for my back pack and remove a first aid kit and tend to the wound.

"It was a clean hit, in and out, I have to break the tip of the arrow so I can remove it, hold still…" He nods, Finn stands watch holding onto his rifle. After removing the arrow and cleaning the wound, I help the man stand, he was taller than me, his mask covered most of his facial features but I could see the color of his eyes, hazel. He still had his knife in his hand, he looks between me and Finn and then at his hand. He sheathes his knife. Finn and I share a glance and the man takes a step closer to me and before Finn cloud react the man closed his right fist and placed it, closed, over his heart and bowed murmuring a word on his language Skaiheda. _I wonder what that means._

Before he could turn and leave we hear a loud sound at a distance, we hear and see a small number of birds fleeing.

"What was that?" Finn asked nervous

"Acid fog…." I whisper, I look to the side and the grounder was no longer there.

"Run" we start running and at a small distance we hear the grounder calling to us and signaling to follow him, at this moment we have no choice but to follow, this better not be a trap.

"There." I point and we run faster to where the grounder men was.

"Where did he go?" Finn asks and I look back and the acid was approaching faster.

"Skaiheda" the man calls from behind a tree "Masta ai op" (Follow me) we follow him and he takes us to a shelter hidden on the ground.

"This better not be one of those tunnels that link into the mountain, they are filled with reapers." My grip on the rifle tightens. The man lights a torch and begins walking down the tunnel. We turn on the flash light on the rifle and light our way behind the man.

"Do you think we are going to find our scouts?" I ask Finn and the man in front of us suddenly stops.

"Two skaikru, armed, black?" he asks turning towards me.

"Yes, you've seen them? Where are they?" I ask stepping close to him.

"Reaper, death…" was all he said and turned again and began walking, again. I eye Finn and heavily sighs. "Skaiheda" He called and we continue down the tunnel.

"Where did he go?" we reach a large room but no grounder.

"Do you think…" but before Finn could finish his sentence a group of grounder surround us from all sides. We had bows, swords and spears pointing at us and still no sign of the grounder.

"At least they are not reapers." Finn joked and I grumbled.

"Chil yo daun" we hear from behind a large crate. A female voice the same female voice I heard before…its Anya.

"We have to stop meeting like this skaikru." Anya says, a devilish smirk across her face. Her people still had their weapons aimed at us.

"Drop your weapons Veida (invaders) you are at a disadvantage, we are many and you are too few…" her arms were folded, still smirking.

"We both have enough bullets to kill you all." I growl and she chuckles raising an eyebrow and unfolding her arms.

"Clarke…." Finn whispers not liking the odds. I could see worry in his eyes.

"You're the one that wanted to play friendly." I shoot back at him and he clenches his jaw.

"You don't know when to quit do you?" Anya steps even closer to me, both her hands on her hips. Finn puts down his weapon and raises his hands behind his head.

"Now you turn." she teases and I growl which seems to amuse her even further.

"Fine." I put my rifle down and she chuckles.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?"

"Pat emo daun" (search them) she instructs and the grounders take our weapons, backpack, gag us and bind our hands against a pole at the further end of the room.

I wiggle my wrist watch and it is now, 14.41pm, if we aren't out of here before 16pm Byrne is going to freak out, hell my mother is going to freak out. Anya is a few feet away from us speaking to some of the other grounder probably plotting against my people, she's been there for a few minutes and every chance she gets she eyes me and smirks and I just look away, annoyed.

A few more minutes later she walks our way accompanied by two grounders and kneels down in front of me. She exchanges a look between me and Finn and then speaks.

"I was told that you saved the life of my scout…what were you doing in the woods?" I growl and she smirks."Oh, I'm sorry here let me help you with that…." She reaches for me and unbinds the gag. "Well?" She asked

"We were looking for two of our people" it's all I say eyeing her and the two behind her.

"Spies?" she asked narrowing her eyes and for some reason its makes me mad.

"Scouts…." She raised her chin in defiance and looked back at the two grounders behind her and signaled them to leave.

"Didn't I told you to leave, to gather you people and leave our land?"

"Your land?" I almost yell "What? You peed in every corner of it?" I growl and she gave a puzzled look like she didn't understand what I just said.

"Pee? As in piss…." I look at Finn and he is laughing, a muffled laughter by gag, I can't help myself and I chuckle too.

"You are a strange woman, Klarke of the sky people…" she stands up, hands on her hips. "But humor won't save you people from justice…the commander will have her way, justice will be served." I look at Finn he looks down.

"Unbind them" she orders and a grounder comes from behind her and removes our restraints and Finn's gag.

"You said you'd get me an audience with your commander" I approach Anya her back was turned to me.

"That was before one of you people started murdering innocent people" she almost growled.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you, you are no different from the mountain men" she walks away from me and I follow.

"We are nothing like them" I grab her arm and turn her facing me. But she counters and twists my arm backwards. The grounders stiffen and unsheathed their weapons but before they could approach me Anya raised her hand and they relaxed again.

"You are a child playing games of war" she releases my arm and I stand back up rubbing it.

"You have no idea what you are getting yourself into…you…"

"My people are trapped inside Mount Weather just as yours are" I growl and she narrow's her eyes at me. "We can't'…." I sigh heavily "….we can't beat them on our own we need to stand together, you know that you were there…." She rubs her forehead turning her back passing back and forth a little.

"What do you have in mind?" She asked and I look past her to the other grounders, some of them were paying attention to our conversation since I don't want many people knowing I signal her to follow me to a corner of the room and she complies.

"What if I tell that I might have a way to listen in to the mountain?" I whisper

"Is that even possible?" she asked folding her arms across her chest.

"I'm working on it, but you can't say anything to anyone, who knows how far the mountains reach is." i warned

"The commander must know…."

"No, at least not yet, promise me" she looks away passing a little. "Anya, promise." I plead.

"For now, ONLY…"she warned.

"It will be our secret." We both agree.

"Thank you for saving the life of my scout, he said you saved him from a group of reapers?"

"Yes, we were looking for two of our people, he said the reapers took them?"

"It's a possibility, the reapers are growing boulder by the minute, a small village close by was attacked, we were checking the area, but we only found foot prints and blood stains on the ground, once reapers attack they don't leave anyone alive. Ira volunteered to scout further and that's when you found him." Byrne is not gonna like this.

"Osir can bants em ste clear" (we can leave it is clear) one of the grounders runs back from the corridor.

"I guess it's time for us to part ways…again."

"I guess, I have to go back to my people and warn them about what happened to the scouts…" I say eyeing her up and down. "Unless we are you prisoners? If memory doesn't fade I still have a full night to decide if we leave or stay" I challenge and she raises an amused eyebrow.

"Even fools know when to stand down" she teases and I scoff.

"We'll see who the fool is" we grab our things and head back to camp Jaha. It is almost 16pm and I bet Byrne is already fuming.

 **Camp Jaha**

There was a large concentration of people outside the entrance to the council room. The people seemed nervous I could see some passing, cursing and other looked almost desperate. Most of these people never pick up a weapon in their lives, and now with the threat of the grounder forces pounding on our gates could escalate to larger incidents even within our gates.

"Civilian check-in will take place at 0900 hours. Civilian should report to your station supervisors for further instructions."

"This doesn't look good, the people are afraid, this may turn violent…" Finn nods and rubs the back of his neck. I see Byrne close to the door into the Ark. She sees me and comes our way.

"What took you so long? Tension here is crazy and not to mention that your mother still haven't left the council room…"

"I'm afraid we don't have good news, major." She turns away and sighs heavily.

"What happened?" she asks, Finn and I exchange looks.

"Reapers took them…we found bullets casings up the river and a lot of blood on the floor. We even fought some…"

"We are the bodies? Maybe we can…"

"Major, reapers don't leave survivors or bodies to locate, they take them and…." Byrne shakes her head trying to digest on the news

"I have to inform you mother of the situation in here… I have to go…." She leaves and goes inside the Ark. I look at Finn he looked fear full his lips set in a grim line. I don't like this either.

A few minutes later the large metal door of the Ark opens and my mother and Councillor Jaha come out. My mother looked tense, her hands were fisted and she looked tired. Jaha stood tall and relaxed.

"By now you have all heard the rumor and unfortunately it is true. The grounders are coming. We have a difficult decision to make, thankfully Councillor Jaha has found his way back to us and we are discussion all our options." The second mother spoke about the grounders coming the people stiffened, whispers were heard and heads shook in hurried disappointment.

"But to be safe…" Jaha carried on walking to the opposite side of my mother "…you need to pack….now….whatever you can carry, we may need to move at a moment's notice…."

"Where will we go?" a scared man asked, all heads turned to him.

"I don't know…is the answer….but I've heard of a place. A city of light it's across the dead zone" he pointed to our left and the people followed his direction.

"What makes you think we will make it there?" another man asked.

"Because we made it here…." Jaha smirks, "I have faith….and now given the alternative that's good enough for me…." He cocked his head side to side making sure his testament was heard across the camp. I glanced to my mother and I noticed her brows knitted in a frown. She doesn't approve of Jaha plan I know it.

"Not for us…." I take a step forward. "…if we leave her what about our friends trapped inside mount weather?" the people around me turn to my words.

"Has you mother said…that is a very difficult decision to make….but the time has come for each and every one of us to ask….is this how the story of our people ends? Did we all this way just to die tomorrow? Because if we are not gone by the time that sun rises that is exactly what will happen." Jaha continues his so proud speech about faith and survival, I look to my mother and her jaw clenches I see her swallow hard.

"No decision has been made, in the meantime please report to you stations supervisor and gather emergency supplies…" Mother looks at me and nods after finishing her news and both her and Jaha walk back inside the Ark. Before I could step further someone grabs my arm and turns me, it's Bell.

"Hey, where have you been, I was worried." I ask glad to see him well.

"In the drop ship, you need to come back with me right now…" the muscles in his face tightened.

"Why, what happened?" my body stiffened at the remark

"I'll explain on the way, bring a med kit and meet me at Raven's gate." He walked away, long legged strides. I look at Finn and he also shares my concern.

"This is my fault" Finn drops his head.

"The grounders are attacking because of me…"

"The grounders are attacking because is what they do" I approach Finn and rub his arm. His posture eases a little.

"Go with Bellamy, no decision has been made if it changes I'll let you know." He asked and I nodded. I grab a med kit and meet Bell at the gate.

"So? What is the med kit for?" I ask him and he looked away.

"Oh my god did something happened to Octavia?" I almost yell concerned.

"No, no it's not Octavia it is Lincoln."

"Oh, good you've found him is he hurt?" I ask looking for answers, Octavia probably is with him.

"Something' like that…." Huh?

"We should hurry." He warns and we get on the way to the drop ship.

 **Drop ship**

I climb up the metallic chairs and see Octavia cradled up in one corner, suddenly a very bloodied, chained and angry Lincoln growls from the center of the room. He looked pretty beat up, there were cuts and some bruises all over him. He kept growling and yelling like a crazed man.

"I can't believe we are back here again…." I say still not believing the condition Lincoln was in.

"It's okay, he's been restrained…" Bell reassures me by squeezing my shoulder.

"Can you help him?" Octavia asks still on the floor sagged against the wall

"I don't know…." I answer and Octavia curls into a ball. "I knew mount weather controlled the reapers, but I had no idea they were creating them…" I inhaled a deep breath and blow out slowly. "If they can do that to Lincoln I can't imagine what they are doing to our friends…" Lincoln tries to force the chains out of its hinges, metal clanking violently, he looked crazed with anger. "He's convulsing" I notice has Lincoln starts to shake.

"What does that mean?" Octavia asked worried. I take another look at Lincoln and realize that his legs is bleeding.

"What happened to his leg?" I turn to Octavia and she lower her gaze.

"I shot him…" she answers back quick and jerky like rusty cogs on a wheel.

"Clarke he lost a lot of blood…" Bellamy clinched his jaw in worry.

I take a look back at Lincoln and he begins to growl furiously, I look at his neck and something is off.

"Can you shine a light on his neck?" I ask Bell and O. Once they hit Lincoln with both their lights Lincoln tries to flinch away from its touch.

"Needle marks"

"You think he's been drugged?" Bellamy asked waiting for an answer

"Maybe…." Lincoln this exact moment breaks one of his arms free from the chains and grabs me by the neck and tries to bite me, but Bellamy hurries my way and starts to pound Lincoln's arm away from my neck. The reaper slaps Octavia and me to the ground, Bell is left fighting the enraged reaper and is also knocked down. Octavia manages to stand and hit Lincoln across the head and knock him out.

We restrain Lincoln again but this time on the floor, several chains are laid across his chest, arms and legs. I take a look at his leg but he is still bleeding.

"We have to stop the bleeding and remove the bullet inside…hold his leg down…" Bellamy complies while I look for the right tools on the med kit. Octavia tries to give him some water but he coughs it back out growling, she freaks a little and leave saying she will get more, but I know seeing him like this is really hard for her, Bell tries to comfort her but is in vain.

I remove the bullet and tend to the wound. "Your mother would be proud…" Bellamy tried to comfort me

"My mother would be able to save him…." I look away

Octavia returns with a grounder, male, Bellamy reacts quickly by reaching for his rifle but Octavia stands in the way and informs that he is one of their healers a friend of Lincoln. Our chained friend starts to seizure and foaming from the mouth. The grounder knelt down and reached for a collection of small vials he brought with him, probably medicine. He grabs one and tries to squeeze some drops into Lincoln mouth.

"What is that?" I ask a little suspicious of his actions.

"Yu gonplei ste odon." He whispers to him, lowering the vial close to Lincoln's mouth. Those words… I've heard them before…before a drop could reach. Our friend's lips and catch hit.

"Wait…" The grounder looks at me nervously.

"Back off, right now…" Bellamy orders point his rifle to the grounder's head.

"Yu gonplei ste odon, that's what they said before death, you are not trying to save him you are trying to kill him." I growl accusing him.

"Nyko, is that true?" Octavia asked angry.

"Yes, death is the only way…" he admits.

"Hold on, there could be a way to bring him back" Nyko looks at me in disbelief.

"Not that I've ever seen…"

"We have to go, they are leaving camp" Finn shows up, worried.

"YOU?" Nyko growls.

"We have to sto…." Nyko throws himself at Finn and tries to choke him.

"RIPAAA…" he growls holding even tighter to Finn throat.

"Get off of him…." Bell threatens but to no use.

"No you are not shooting him" Octavia stands in the way of Bell and Nyko.

"You murdered my people, innocents, children, elderly….you don't deserve to live." The grounder growls furiously. Finn doesn't react he just stands there, choking, probably letting Nyko kill him out of guilt.

"BLOOD MUST HAVE BLOOD." He growls and at this point I have to do something and I look around and see a shock baton and use it on the grounder's back and he falls to the ground.

"Lincoln….he stopped moving…" Octavia kneels down and looks at me pleadingly. I check his pulse and nothing.

"He stopped breathing…move." I start CPR and a few seconds later Lincoln is breathing again. Relief is spread across Octavia face and she nods happy at the income.

The grounder healer is awake again and by the look on his face he never seen anything like this happen before.

"He was dead…how did you do that?" he asked surprised.

"You've tried bringing reapers back before?" I ask and he nods

"And they've died like this?" he nods again.

"What is it? Bellamy asked exchanging looks between me and Nyko.

"I know how to stop the attack….i have to get back to camp now."

"Clarke" Bell steps in the way.

"Bell stay here with Octavia and Nyko, I'm going to camp and talk to my mother she can help us" I looked at Nyko and he nodded.

"Be care full and take Finn with you" he gently grabbed my hand and squeezed.

"I will" I exchanged looks with them once more and head out to camp with Finn.

"What's wrong?" I ask Finn on the way to camp, it was almost night, a few more minutes and it will be dark.

"Even if you can save Lincoln, he will never be the same…the things he has done…they will stay with him…" fear, despair, regret filled his eyes and words.

"You don't know that" I whisper

"Yes we do." He whispered back

"If he can be saved so can you" I tried shedding some hope onto him.

"C'mon we have to hurry." And we do.

We reach camp, it was already dark, there were guards everywhere, armed guards, and people were ….packing….several Arkers already had their backpacks ready. A decision had already been made. Am I too late?

"Mom" I see her she was close to the gate, close to Jaha.

"Where have you been? We are leaving" she asked after hugging me thigh.

"I know how to stop the attack" I see hope shine in her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Jaha asked doubtfully.

"We haven't been able to negotiate with the grounders because we had nothing to offer….we do now…the biggest threat they face is from the reapers. I we are able to eliminate that threat once and for all. "

"How?" My mother asks excitedly for a new course of action.

"Abby! You can't seriously….." Thelonious counters my mother but out of nowhere we hear people gossiping and turn our heads and realize that the grounder are here. They have arrived. We see lit torches, one turns to four, to ten, a hundred, thousands. We are completely surrounded by enemy forces.

"They are here…" Jaha concludes.

We gather inside the council room to discuss how to proceed.

"We have two hours until down, which means we still have time, let me talk to the commander. She is Anya's second, maybe Anya can give us a hand."

"We don't even know if the commander is here" Jaha mocks

"She is, Anya said she would be and I believe her" I look at Finn and he nods.

"You have to at least let her try" Finn pleads for them to listen.

"Abby we are waiting time…give me the authority …NOW…" Jaha tries to reason with my mom.

"Hold on… Clarke, you said the Lincoln is going through withdraw, we don't even know what he is withdrawing from…the detox alone could kill him…"

"That's where you come in."

"And if I can't save him?" my mother asks looking for answers

"That is not an option…." I licked my lips hoping my mother could save the day.

"We are risking everything on a bluff… Abby we have an out we have an opportunity to save the lives of our people." Jaha asks annoyed folding his arms across his chest.

"Not all of them" Jaha slams both his hands on the table after hearing Finn's words.

"We will come back to save the kids inside mount weather." He almost growled trying to sound convincing sitting back up abruptly.

"We all know that's not gonna happen" Finn, right again.

"Abby this has gone long enough, give the order to commence the Exodus…otherwise you will be killing us all" he passed quickly to my mother's ear. We all stare at each other for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry…." My mother finally speaks. "I can't give that order…" she turns to him, and lock her eyes with his.

"Abby, give the order" he whispers close to her, I could see his jaw clench.

"NO" My mother stood her ground.

"I am the elected…chancellor of the Ark, and I'm not going to let you risk the lives of my people, do you understand?" those two were a breath away.

"I'm gonna ask one more time….give the order to begin the exodus…"

"No, are you through yet?" I love this woman. His eyes twitched, his jaw tightened, he walked around my mother and walked his way to major Byrne and Sergeant Miller.

"I am relieving Doctor Griffin from her command… "He turned back to my mom, standing tall as always...

"Place these three into custody but make sure they are ready to leave with the rest of us within the hour…." My heart skipped a beat.

"RIGHT NOW MAJOR, or you will equally responsible for the deaths of your people." Byrne looked torn between following my mother's orders or Jaha's.

"Major Byrne, Sergeant Miller, put chancellor jaha in the stockade…" Byrne and Miller hesitated for a split second, they were both staring down Jaha.

"Yes ma'am…" she finally answers and Jaha couldn't believe what was happening'. Jaha tries to resist.

"Everything we did to survive…you just gonna throw everything away? Why?" he asked

"Because I have faith too, in my daughter…" I beamed at that. Who's the mamma's girl? I am.

"Thank you" I whisper.

"I'll send a guard detail with you…."

"No, they will see it has a threat… I have to do this on my own…" she nods understand my position.

"Finn will take you to Lincoln…"

"If you are wrong…all of us are gonna die…." Jeez mom thanks a lot. I ready myself to meet the commander and a guard storms in the council room.

"What is it?" my mom asks concerned.

"There is someone at the gates…." We all exchange glances I wonder who it is.

We head to the gate and who do I find standing there, arms folded across her chest, two horse riders behind her. Anya.

"Still here I see…" her stoic pose revealing no emotion.

"I want to speak to your commander" I demand standing straight.

"Follow me" she turned and I swallowed hard…here we go.


	5. Chapter 5

I own nothing but my own creativity and Oc's, I hope you like it let me know what you think. I'd like to thank Sophanna and caitlin141414 for the brainstorming and editing of this chapter. Thanks Girls you are dolls.

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The second I leave camp Jaha with Anya I feel the heavy atmosphere come down on me. Anya's Guards follow close behind by flanking us both. They wear full armor and I can't see their faces as they're covered by metal and skull masks. We walk for a few minutes and the grounders keep their distance, their camp within camp Jaha's view. There are many tents across the area with torches lit. Many warriors spread across the camp in full armor and weapons in hand. A small crowd follows us to the commander's tent. I can feel their eyes on me, all over me.

"You should have left, Clarke."

"I'm not, we are not going anywhere. I thought that much was clear by now."

Anya suddenly stops and turns to me. "The commander…."

"The commander will soon realize that if we go to war that will only help the mountain men and you don't want that do you?"

"Don't you think it is time for them to stop bleeding your people and finally get what's coming to them!?" Anya growls and I can see her irises dilate. I can't imagine what it feels like to lose so many people to the enemy, it would make you feel so helpless. I'm getting my friends out of that accursed mountain with or without these grounders help, whatever the cost.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" Anya raises an eyebrow at my words. "You know that and the commander will too… I just have to convince her to side with us…" I sigh, looking down. "What happened to your lip?" I ask looking up at Anya, she keeps her stoic look and turns back as she starts walking again and I followed. "You know I'm curious. Last time we met, before you hit on the head with a rock, you said you couldn't show your face without a prize. How did that turn out?" I tease with her back still turned to me. She glances sideways at me and I smirk as she stops walking in front of me.

"We are here."

"Fine, keep it to yourself then…" I shrug standing next to her and she snorts.

A freakishly large man is at the tent's entrance, probably a guard. His head is partially shaved, he has a long black beard, and some tattoo on the side of his face. He approaches me. "If you so much look at her the wrong way I'll slit your throat…" the large men threatens and goes back to the tent's entrance, he makes way for me to enter by holding the tent flap. I swallow hard and Anya notices with a smirk.

"Wow, you people are so warm and cuddly I feel right at home…" I muttered sarcastically. Anya took point and I follow right behind her.

The inside of the tent is large. I quickly notice that on the right is a model of camp Jaha, apparently she already had her scout's recon the area surrounding our camp. At the center of the tent is a wooden shaped throne, pointy branches form the upper side of it with two spear tips as well. The grounder commander is seated on it. She doesn't look much older than me with a youthful face, average in height, slim, a high forehead, and plump lips. As I take another step forward I see she wears some sort of face paint which enhances the color of her dark green eyes. Her hair is out of her face with a number of layered braids. She wears full armor but it's different from the rest of her troops, probably due to her position as commander. She also wears a shoulder pad and attached to it is a blood red piece of cloth that comes all the way down to her feet. To her left is an older woman with darker skin. Her features hard with her hand gripping her swords hilt. She looks hostile as her eyes never leave me. The large man walks to the commander's right.

"Heda disha ste klark gon the skai kru" (Commander this Clarke of the sky people). Anya announces bowing as a sign of respect. The commander nods and Anya steps to the side.

"You're the one who burned 300 of my warriors alive?" The commander asks playing with a dagger she had in hand.

I stiffen. "You are the one who send them there to kill us." I shift from foot to foot. Her eyes narrow at my bold retort. She glances at Anya and I see no emotional reaction from her, she keeps her poker face like her life depends on it.

"Do you have an answer for me Clarke of the sky people?" she asks still playing with her dagger.

I take a second or two before answering. "I've come to make you an offer."

"This is not a negotiation…"

"Teik ai frag em op en dison laik odon" (Let me kill her and get this over with) the hard featured woman says as she eyes me dangerously. The commander silences her at whatever she said.

"I can help you defeat the mountain men…" I add quickly feeling the tension in the room rise.

"Go on." The seated woman adds.

"Hundreds of you people are trapped inside mount weather. They're kept in cages and their blood is used as medicine." She glances at Anya and then back at me.

"How do you know this?" she asks me.

"Because I saw them, I was…we were two of them." Anya stiffens and I sighed, I remember how she looked trapped inside that cage, like an animal, lifeless.

"Ste disha ridyio, Onya?" (Is this true, Anya?)

"Sha, Heda." (Yes Commander) Anya nods and looks at me then back at her commander. "If it wasn't for Clarke I wouldn't be here right now, she saved my life."

"You owe her a dept, I see." The commander eyes me up and down, Anya nods again.

"We fought our way out together, trying to get a message to you."

"What massage?" she asked bluntly.

"The only way to save both our people is if we join together."

"Those who are about to die will say anything." The woman on the left of the commander says almost too proudly.

"I'm still waiting for an offer, Clarke." The green eyed woman hurries impatiently.

"The mountain men are turning your people into reapers, I can turn them back…"

"Impossible." The hostile woman almost gasps at my words. I see both the commander and Anya react to my words as if it were impossible.

"Heda, ai ste ? Daun teik ai frag em op!" (Commander, I beg you, let me kill her.)

"I've done it with Lincoln…" At the mention of his name this irritating woman steps in front of me, hand on the hilt of her sword as she snarls.

"That traitor is the reason, your people slaughtered my village."

"EN PLENI." (Enough) the commander sits up obviously upset at this woman's rampage. By the order of her leader she steps away from me and to my left side. The commander looks at me eyeing me carefully and then approaches me stopping barely a breath away. "You said you can turn Reapers back into men?" she asked almost too angry.

"Yes." I answer keeping my cool. Her presence is overwhelming as I try not to step back.

"Then prove it, show me Lincoln." She demands and I nod. I glance at Anya and she still looks shocked, so does the tall man.

"I'll take you there, he is at our former camp and it's only a couple of hours away" the commander nods.

"Prepare to leave…" she informs her warriors. "Anya I need you to take charge, if anything happens to me while I'm gone…." The commander narrowed her eyes at me menacingly.

"Storm their camp and leave no one alive."

"Sha, Heda." Anya flashed me a cocky wink and I almost growled.

"Let's go then." I propose and we leave the grounder camp and head toward the dropship. Our walk is silent. I walk in front while the commander is behind me escorted by a group of her warriors. At the outside of the dropship I notice they slow down a little behind me and I turn to see what the problem is. The commander is scanning the area, the same area three hundred of her warriors burned that night of the attack. I see her features harden as I look at her, she glances at me, her jaw line clenching at the sight of the scorched bodily remains.

"This way…" I signal to the entrance of the dropship and show them the way up the steel stairs opening the hatch at its top. Inside I turn to the sound of Octavia's cries. Lincoln was on the floor, still chained down and unmoving. I look to my mother and the muscles in her face tighten. Bell is knelt down trying to provide comfort to his Little sister, her cries echoing in his hears.

The commander and her warriors finally enter and spread across the room. The room becomes too crowded, tensions begin to rise as the commander and I exchange looks. They notice Lincoln's still body on the floor. I notice Bell trying to reach for his rifle and my palms start to sweat.

The commander looks to her general and gives a nod. "Kill them all…" she unsheaths her sword aiming it at my mother's throat, the chancellor reaches for the shock baton seconds before the sharp weapon almost grazes her throat. With weapons aiming at each other my heart skips a beat, my mouth is dry I can feel the blood coursing through my veins.

"Please, you don't have to do this." I plead to the ground commander.

"You lied…and you are out of time." she accuses me with her weapon drawn. Out of nowhere my mother hits Lincoln with the shock weapon hopping his heart will react to the electric pulse.

"Hit him again…" I demand and she does. Lincoln's body comes back from the dead with a deep breath. Octavia hurries back to him not believing her eyes, trying to touch him but afraid it's just a dream. It's only after he whispers her name that she can fully believe Lincoln had come back to her.

I look to the commander and she's at a loss and so are the warriors she brought with her. The dark skinned woman is perplexed, her hand had shaken a little the second Lincoln looked to Octavia. The commander was too, it's the first time I see that emotion on her face.

The grounders sheath their weapons and the commander ogles at me for a few seconds. "I believe we have much to discuss." The commander says and I nod. "We should head back to my camp and discuss terms of truce." I nod once again at her words. "Move out." She commands and her warriors and they leave one by one until she was the only one left. I look to my mother, she takes my hand and squeezes.

"We'll wait for you at camp, Lincoln needs to be checked out, he looks dehydrated and he needs medical attention. " My mother looks to the commander and then to me. The commander nods and so do I. The commander and I exit the dropship and head to her camp. This time she walks beside with me and her warriors were flanking us. I occasionally glanced at her but I can't read anything from her. What she was thinking or feeling? She keeps a steady pass, her hand tightly gripping her sword. She looks so… the second she catches me looking I quickly look away and keep walking and we exchanged no words.

Inside her camp I look to my left and I see Anya discussing something with her people, I notice her fiendish smile before she turns again. The commander dismisses the guard inside of her tent and she moves to the side table, the same one with the model of camp Jaha.

"Lincoln's recovery is… impressive, no one's ever recovered from such a faith before." She sounds both impressed and pleased.

"It's not that complicated really…we just have to keep them alive long enough for the drugs to leave their system, I'm sure we could do the same for others." The commander nods looking a little thoughtful, maybe imagining how the reaper threat could have such a simple solution.

"You may have your truce." The second the words leave her lips a huge weight comes off my shoulders. "You just have to do something for me in return."

"Tell me." I answer excited.

"Bring me the one you call Finn." Fuck. "The truce begins with his death." Double fuck. It feels like the floor under my feet is slipping away, she wants Finn, but how does she know his name.

"I…" words struggle to leave my mouth until Anya steps inside the tent.

"Anya, escort Clarke back to her camp." She commands the woman and Anya simply nods.

"You have until tomorrow's first light to answer to the terms of this truce, fail to do so and the truce is voided." She turns at the end of her words and goes back to her throne. I swallow hard and look at Anya. She still looks stoic and poised. She points at the exit of the tent and I follow her out. The sun had already retreated, the only light around was the torches spread across the grounder camp and camp Jaha's beams of light. Even if it was possible to see the stars in the sky, I wouldn't be able to see them now. A thick, gray, and gloomy fog surrounds us, obscuring our view.

True to her commander Anya escorts me out of her camp. Two mounted riders followed close by bearing lit torches. A few feet away from camp Jaha's gate Anya grabs my forearm. Before she speaks she looks at the riders and they stop following, giving us some space.

"You won't be able to protect your boyfriend forever. He is guilty and will pay for his crime, you can't protect him much longer." She warns letting go of my arm.

"How…" my heart skips a beat.

"Did you really think that we wouldn't find out?" she almost sounds insulted.

"But the commander…"

"The commander doesn't know…yet." She steps closer and narrows her eyes at me. "If you truly want this truce to work you will give him up, is he really that valuable to you? To your people? Are you and your people willing to fight and die defending a murderer? If those are the values your people stand for I truly expect you to fight I'll be glad to introduce you to the end of my sword." I saw a gleam of deviltry in her eyes.

"Why haven't you told her then?" I ask defiantly. She just stands straighter assuming a regal pose.

"Come Clarke, you have a difficult decision to make, all of your people or just one." She points at camp Jaha's gate and signals her riders to approach.

My jaw clenches, but I walk the remaining distance. The gates of camp Jaha opens its door at the sight of me. I hear and see Bellamy, he's the first to come to me. Finn follows.

"Are you okay?" Bellamy asks eying behind me, he points his rifle at the grounders.

"Shut the gate." I order. I can see Anya on the other side of the gate, her arms folded across her chest.

"You can't be out here." I warn Finn and pull him away from the gate.

My mother runs to me and we huge, a group of people surround us, expecting answers.

"What did she say?" she asks, letting go of me. "Is there a chance for a truce?" she asks again, more people are coming closer to us, Raven finally shows up.

"Yes." I answer almost too hesitant.

"What's wrong?" Finn asks. I look at Bell and I can see that he knows something bad is going to come out of my mouth.

"They want you…" I look at Finn. "If we want a truce we have to give them Finn." I continue.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Raven blurts out.

"That's their offer." I say not looking Raven in the eye.

"That's not an offer…"

"It's punishment…for what happened on the village…blood for blood." Finn realizes.

"That's insane." Bellamy mutters from behind me.

"And if we refuse?" My mother asks.

"They attack." My mother deeply sighs at my flat answer.

"I say we give him up." A man yells.

"Get rid of him." Another one answers.

"Give him to the grounders." Another growls on the left of Raven and she pushes him back. The people around us start to approach slowly eyeing Finn like sharks.

"Raven." I try to catch her attention "Raven listen to me, nothing is gonna happen to him. I promise okay?" she's nervous but she relaxes a little.

"I'm not dying for him, spacewalker burned three months of oxygen from the Ark, he should have floated long time ago." A medium sized man hisses carrying a small club. "Throw him out." He yanks Finn's arm and Raven reacts by punching him, tensions begin to rise and the guards are forced to intervene, Byrne is also hit by Ravens' left hand and she's carried away by the guards.

"This is getting out of hand." Bellamy says and I nod.

"We have to figure this out." I sigh at my own words.

"Finn, stay away from the gate, don't let anyone see you, you're on the least favorites this year." He smiles at my little joke.

"Yeah I guess so…"

"Bell and I will figure something out we are not giving you up." I look at Bel and he nods. Finn doesn't look relieved.

Both Bellamy and I go for a walk around camp. "How are we going to do this?" I ask Bellamy and he laughs.

"You're asking me for battle tactics, princess?" I almost hit him.

"Oh don't be a jerk this is serious." I smirk.

"We should reinforce the defenses and change perimeter checks. They probably have scouts around the area."

"Yeah do that." I rub the back of my head.

"Hey it's gonna be fine." Bellamy notices my nervousness and gently squeezes my shoulder.

"Yeah…" I'm not so sure.

I'm going to check on Finn meet me there?" I ask and he nods.

"See you in a sec."

I look around camp trying to find Finn, I find him seated close to the bar with Murphy. A few seconds later Bell finds me and we go to Finn together.

"Hey, we are reinforcing our defenses and that's double for the perimeter, no one is getting through that wire." Bellamy informs and I notice that Murphy is carrying a rifle.

"I'll see where they are thin." Finn sits up getting ready to move but Bell stops him.

"No, you should head inside, B corridor would be easier to defend if it comes to that." I nod at Bellamy's words.

"I'm not gonna hide…" Finn sounds insulted.

"Right now we have to think about keeping you safe, I'm going to talk to Lincoln."

"C'mon." Finn and Bell go first.

"Hey, do you have any orders for me princess?" Hell Murphy's voice is annoying.

"Stay the hell away from me." I warn.

"Just trying to be helpful."

"You were with him at the village…" I say

"I tried to stop him…" he steps forward hands in his pockets.

"Not hard enough." I turn annoyed and ready to leave but Murphy adds.

"You know you want to start blaming people Clarke. He was out there looking for you." I stopped but didn't turn to his words, a beat later I headed to the infirmary to talk to Lincoln. I see him seated on a bed, restrained. He looks really beat up as Octavia tries to comfort him. He seems aloof, somewhere else.

"He is not a reaper anymore, there is no need to restrain him." I point at his hands and my mother shakes a little.

"Yes there is."

"Just tell us, is there a way to make peace?" I mother asks him, hopping for a loop hole.

"Did she leave riders behind?" he asks thinking a little.

"Two just outside the gate and Anya was with them."

"They are waiting for Finn." My mother nodded.

"We don't have much time to decide."

"She can't expect us to just hand over one of our own, would she do that?" Octavia asked

"She wouldn't let all of her people die to protect a murderer" Lincoln venomously answered.

"Anya said something similar, maybe she can help."

"She won't be able to help."

"Why not?" I asked curious

"Granting you an audience with the commander was a risk, especially after you burned the 300 under her command. That was a massive blow to her position as general, a position she will be forced to defend."

"What do you mean?" My mother asks.

"She may lose her credibility as a leader, labeled unfit to lead. Many would see her as weak, the same could happen to the commander if she doesn't pursue justice for what Finn did."

"How can she get it back?"

"She could demand the rite of proving." Lincoln noticed our raised eyebrows and continued.

"It is used many times as a way to resolve certain conflicts, she would be forced to fight. To defeat or kill those who oppose her in single combat with little to no pauses."

"That sounds intense." I almost gasp. "I noticed a cut on her lip and a bruise on her face." I remind myself.

"Maybe it already happen." Lincoln cocked his head.

"If you don't do this the commander will kill everyone in this camp." Lincoln warned.

"There must be something we can offer." I mother hopes.

"He took 18 lives, the commander is offering to take just one. Take the deal." He advised and Octavia dropped her head biting her lip.

"How can you say that? Finn was the first person to come to you and offer peace. He is your friend."

"He massacred my village, some of the dead were my friends."

"Yeah but that wasn't Finn."

"It is now, we all got a monster inside of us and we are responsible for what it does once we let it out." I remember, I remember that Finn kept shooting those people down, I wish I didn't but I do.

"What will they do to him?" my mother asks afraid of the answer.

"Fire, because he killed the innocent. It starts with fire…"

"Starts?" I gasp, what else is there?

"They will take his hands, his eye, tongue, then everyone who grieves will take a turn with a knife. At sunrise the commander will finish it off with a sword, I've never known anyone who survived until the sword. He killed 18, he will suffer the pain of 18 deaths. Then we can have peace." Silence fills the room at Lincoln's words. My body shakes. I can't let these savages put their hands on Finn. I have to do something.

My mother leaves the room leaving me, Lincoln, and O alone. I have to find Finn. I hurry out and start looking for him. The sun had already risen. I find him inside a tent and he's packing. Is he leaving?

"What are you doing?" I ask hoping he's not doing what I think he is.

"I have to go." He looks up from his pack.

"Where? There is nowhere to go. The grounders have us surrounded."

"I'm putting everyone in this camp at risk."

"They'll find and kill you."

"Maybe that's what I deserve…" He sits up wiping his hands. "For what I've done." He insists with self-loading.

"You were trying to find your people. Trying to save us."

"I was trying to find you, I was trying to save you Clarke. I'm in love with you." I almost choke hearing those words.

"Everything that's happened, everything I've done, I did it for you. All that matters is that you are safe Clarke. That you forgive me." He pauses, eyeing me. He's hoping I'll say something but words refused to come out of my mouth.

"Say something." He pleads but I remained frozen. "Clarke…" he begs.

"Don't leave." I whisper. "Please." This time he's out of words. He refuses to look me in the eye. I see and hear him sigh. We hear voices outside and leave the tent to investigate. It's the grounders, they're announcing the end of the time they were given.

"You should get inside." I warn Finn. The grounder riders are still at the gate and so is Anya. She has her arms across her chest, the riders looked antsy. The grounder words seem louder now.

"They are trying to scare us." Bellamy affirmed.

"Clarke I think we should pull back into the station." Mom cautioned.

"No, we have to show them that we are not afraid." I lecture.

"What if I am?" mother asked nervously.

"Fake it." She smiles holding my hand and squeezing. She let's go and heads to the gate. Bellamy and I follow not far behind.

"Open the gate." My Mother commands.

"Where is the boy?" Anya asks eyeballing my mother.

"We are not giving him up, we are ready to fight if it comes to that."

Anya steps closer, weighting the situation and my mother's words. Anya tilts her head to the side and glances at me. I saw her jaw clenched. My mother shifts her weight. We hear the sound of a horn. The riders looked tense Anya turns and takes the arm of one of the riders and rides away with them.

"Watch the woods, look for grounder movement." Bellamy warns and the armed guards do as their told.

"Bellamy…look." I see someone approaching …its Markus. My Mother and the former chancellor walk inside the ark, he looks good for a former prisoner, I wonder what they are discussing.

"Bellamy something is wrong it's taking too long…" I pace back and forth.

"I'll take a look." Bell leaves inside the ark and I'm left to my pacing. I walk back and forth for a few more times before deciding to leave and look for Finn. "There you are. I find Finn in one of the corridors.

"What is it?" He asks rubbing my arm.

"Markus is back and I have a really bad feeling about this we…" Bellamy arrives and he looks upset.

"Finn you need to get out of here."

"Where will he go?" I ask the older Blake

"To the dropship, we can protect him there." I look to the side and people were staring at us, I don't like the looks they are giving Finn.

"No, you know that this is the safest place for him." I try to stop them but they were already walking.

"People are already turning on him we can protect him there, grab your gear and meet me at Raven's gate in 5. She's already working on a way to cut the power to the fence."

"We are surrounded by grounders…" I try to knock some sense into Bell.

"We split up, we take the lower ground we'll make it through. We meet at the dropship." The muscles in Finn's face tightened, he keeps looking back and forth across the corridors.

"There he is, you won't get away this time." It was the same men from before but this time instead of a club he had a large metal pipe. Before he could hit Finn Bellamy hits him with the back of his rifle.

"Anyone else?" Bell threatens but no one stepped forward and we took that as an opportunity to leave.

"Bellamy is right we have to go." We leave the crowded corridors and grab our packs and weapons, sticking to Bell's plan as they head for the the woods

"Hey have you seen anything?" I hurry close to Finn.

"I thought we were splitting up."

"I said that? Not gonna happen." Finn smirks. We keep moving towards the dropship.

"What do we do after the dropship? Where do we go?" he asks and I say nothing.

"You think the grounders will just leave when they found out I'm gone? Is this the best way to help our friends at mount weather?" I have no answer to his questions.

"We will figure this out." It's all I can say before some grounder ninja jumps out of the bushes and hits me on the head and everything goes bye bye.

I wake up and Raven and Finn are there, Raven is tending to my wound and I try to move a little, a wave of pain runs through my head. "Ow…" I hiss.

"See I told you she'd be fine." Raven leaves after reassuring Finn.

"How is your head?" He asks worried.

"I'm fine."

"I thought you were dead…" I see pain in his eyes. "Because of me." he continued.

"Hey, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." I reassure him.

"I've killed so many people…" Finn starts to shake.

"Finn the things we do to survive don't define us."

"What if you are wrong? What if this is what we are now." I can't give him an answer.

"Guys get out here." We hear Murphy calling from outside of the dropship. Finn helps me up and I grab our weapon and prepare to defend our position.

"Get down, grounders." Bell warns and we take position behind some barrels. "Fuck, we're surrounded." I see movement from all sides.

"This is problematic." Finn mutters.

"We should head back inside." Raven warns. Bell and Murphy look at me and I just nod. We quickly head inside the ark.

"Murphy keep watch." I tell him and he nods hiding behind the large curtain.

"They are getting closer." Murphy mumbles after a few minutes of nonstop vigilance.

"We'll stay out of range and wait until its dark."

"If we hit them now at least they will be taken by surprise."

"We don't have enough bullets to kill them all, hell, we don't even know how many there are."

"I'm not hearing any better ideas Clarke." Murphy grumbles

"We'll give them something." Raven offers passing a little.

"All they want is Finn."

"Finn wasn't the only one at the village." Murphy quickly glares at Raven.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, stepping closer to her.

"Raven, hold on." Bellamy protests.

"I volunteered for this, you are the one who wanted me here." Murphy blurts out but suddenly stops reaching a conclusion.

"That's why you asked me to come along." Murphy laughs ironically stepping side to side.

"Enough grounders saw him at the village they believe you were the shooter."

"You sick bitch." Murphy hisses.

"Raven, you don't mean this."

"You know what they do to people."

"They want a murderer we'll give them one, drop your weapon." Raven threatens raising her rifle at Murphy.

"Go to hell Raven." Murphy curses stepping closer to her.

I look between Bell and Finn. "Put it down Raven, you don't want to do this. Like it or not he is one of us."

"I said drop it." She hisses

"STOP, STOP." Finn intervenes lowering Raven's rifles. Stopping her from doing anything stupid by stepping between them.

"We are not doing this, they have us surrounded. The only thing we can do is stay and defend this place."

"I'm with you." Bell speaks up and the rest of us nod.

"Murphy, go upstairs and watch the rear. I'll take the lower level, you three take the front gate." I glance at Bellamy and his jaw clenches.

"That's the plan all right?" We all nod. Murphy walks up the metal stairs and up the hatch. Bell and Raven go outside. I go to my pack and look for my handgun and some extra ammo. Finn kneels down close to the lower hatch eying me, a confident smile surface on his lips but his eyes betrayed him.

"Be careful." he gazes upon me and I know he wants to say more.

"You too." I answer back and leave before he can I take my position close to Raven on the left and started scanning the area for grounder troops. "Someone's coming... there!" I warn and they raise their rifles to the threat.

"Finn?" Raven whispers.

It is Finn, hes just stepped outside of camp raising his hands up behind his head and in a second a group of grounders take him away.

"FINN, NOOO." I yell too late, the grounders already took him.

"What the hell, he just…" Raven growls.

"We have to get back to camp." I run inside the dropship and get my backpack, Raven and Bell follow.

We reach camp Jaha at night time. Many of the Arkers are close to the fence about to witness the events about to come. We can hear loud voices and drums across camp.

"What is that?" Raven asks close to me, she was referring to a small group of grounders preparing a tree.

"That's for Finn they want us to watch." I answer.

"We are gonna get him." I hear Bellamy on the left close to Markus.

"Son, there's thousands of them, even if we kill hundreds, they'd still wipe out this camp and your friend would still die." Markus words hit me hard.

"We have to try." Bell pleads.

"Abby." I hear Raven call my mother, I look to the side and my mom hesitantly looks back at her.

"Abby we have to do something."

"No Raven, we can't." I glanced to the side at Bellamy and he instantly recognizes my look. I leave the fence and start walking to the gate. "Take this." I hand him my gun.

"What are you doing?" He questions.

"I'm going to talk to the commander." I blurt out.

"What else do you have to say?"

"I don't know." I almost yell. I start rubbing my forehead and Raven comes from behind of Bellamy.

"Clarke, give me your hand." Raven orders and then gently hides a small knife under my jacket sleeve. "If she won't release him…kill her." I nod in response "If things will go crazy, we'll grab you and Finn." She starts to shake. "Clarke, he's the only family I got. You have to help him." She reveals and pleads. "I owe him my life."

I leave the gate and make my way into the grounder camp. A few feet from our place there's a group of armed grounders, I stop for only a second and then started walking again. They make way for me to pass them, eyeing me carefully. They follow right behind me. The same woman from the commander's tent is blocking my way forward, she points her rather sharp spear at me, trying to stop me from taking another step.

"I'm here to talk to your commander." I say taking another step into her spear. I feel the tip sink into my skin, but I refused to acknowledge the sting it leaves. She stares me down a second more. "I'm not leaving." I state and she almost smiles.

"Let her pass." The commander orders leaving her tent. I swallow the lump in my throat and move forward. "You bleed for nothing, you cannot stop this." She tries to reason. She looks the same as we first met except I could almost swear that she felt for me.

"No, but you can." I urge looking to the side where two grounders are bringing Finn towards the tree that was being prepared earlier. The grounders start to cheer and ask for blood. "Show my people that you can be merciful, that you aren't a savage." I try to encourage her.

"We are what we are." I almost shriek at her words. I see Finn being tied down to the tree. My heart starts to pound. A million things are running through my head.

"Then I'm a killer, I burned 300 of your people, I slit a man's throat and watched him die, my hands are soaked in grounder blood, take me instead." I'm running out of options.

"But Finn is guilty."

"No. He did it for me, he did- for me." I run my hands through my hair frantically.

"Then he dies for you…"

My eyes are at the brim of tears, her words hit me like cold hard steel. "Can I say goodbye?" I whisper pleadingly. She nods after a second. I take a deep breath and walk to Finn. I spot Anya on my left, she has her arms across her chest and she keeps her eyes on me until I looked away. With last few steps I run to him kissing him as deeply as I can.

"I love you too…" I confess and he smiles.

"Took you long enough." His attempt at light humor makes me laugh a little.

"I'm scared." He admits and I hug him, rubbing my forehead on his jaw.

"You are going to be okay." Tears start pouring from my eyes as I pull out the small knife and press its tip on Finn's the lower abdomen.

"Thank you, princess." He whispers and his head falls to my shoulder. Finn is gone. I turn around feeling numb, my tears keep pouring as I look down to my right hand and see Finn's blood all over.

"It is done." I hear the commander say as she stops a group of her men from attacking. At a distance I can hear Raven's cries.

The commander suggests that I take a few moments alone before discussing further matters, she offers me her tent until I gather my bearings. I don't think I'll recover from this anytime soon but I take her offer. The inside of her tent has a welcoming darkness. I don't want people to see me in this condition. Grabbing a piece of cloth I start to wipe the blood off my hands, the more I rube the more blood soaked they become. I break down once again and start to sob, tears pouring as overwhelming feelings of guilt come over me. I almost don't notice my mother and Markus enter the tent.

"They would have tortured him. I had to... I had-" I start to hyperventilate and my mother tries to make me feel better by holding me and rubbing my back. She tells me that's its going to be ok. "I had to… wha- what did I do?" I whimper.

"The commander is ready to talk." The tall man walks in the tent and informs us. I take a deep breath and sit up. Sniffing a little as I rub my teary eyes on my jacket sleeve. The commander walks in with her General and sits on her throne, I discover her one womans name to be Indra. Another man stands by her right and Indra on her left.

"Blood has answered blood, some on my side say that's not enough, they wanted the murderer to suffer as they suffered like our tradition demands." She says in flat tone. "But they don't realize that your suffering will be worse, what you did tonight will haunt you until the last of your days." She's right. "Still, there will be restitution, the body will be delivered to the people of TonDc. Murderer and murdered will be joined by fire. Only then we can have peace."

"No, no, we've done enough. The boy should be buried by his own people." Markus steps in.

"Enough?" the dark skinned woman asks. "We've suffered the pain of 18 deaths, we were owed our righteous kill and my village deserves justice." Indra growls.

"You don't want justice…you want vengeance." My mother realizes.

"You have not seen my vengeance." Indra steps down and hisses close to my mother.

"We'll do it. But when it's over we'll talk about how to get our people out of mount weather…all of our people." I urge and the commander and she nods.

"We want the same things Clarke." She points out.

"Good. When do we leave?" I ask

"Right now, choose your attendants." The commander answers and sits up to leave the tent, along with her people.

"Clarke you don't have to do this." My mother hurries to my side.

"Yes I do, if this truce doesn't hold…I've killed Finn for nothing." I walk out of the tent and make my way to Finn's body. Raven is there kneeling down holding onto Finn, she's crying.

"Go away…" she whispers.

"Raven I'm sorry."

"GO AWAY." This time she yells and storms ate me.

"I know how hard this is for you but I'm leaving with the grounders and I need you to keep working on that radio." Two grounder soldiers try to grab Finn's body but Raven freaks out.

"What are you doing?" I try to stop her but it's pointless.

"Give us a minute please." I ask the two men and they leave us be.

"They need to take his body, they will be taking him back into the village where the massacre took place. There is a death ritual…it's the only way to bring back our people from Mount Weather." Her eyes narrow at my words.

"Then I'm coming too, and don't worry I'll bring your damn radio." She walks away from me, I take a deep breath and signal the two grounder men to take Finn's body. As I watch them take him away I see Finn open his eyes, it shocks me. It can't be… _Finn is dead_.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: i own nothing but my own characters and creativity. And there it is... i'd like to thank Sophanna and Caitlin141414...this chapter may be re-updated...

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The road to Tondc was quiet, the hard packed dirt not disturbed by idle bikers or speeding cars was narrow and weaved in between the large trees. The slight breeze caused the red and orange leaves to lazy, skip along the quiet road hardly making a sound. Cracks covered some of the more worn looking areas, making it look much older than it was and loose pebbles hung onto the edge as if holding on for dear life. The breeze picked up, making the not so tall grass and flowers that aligned the road move as if waving to some invisible viewer. I can imagine a car flying by on a nearby highway, tires squeaking as it took a corner too fast. No cars traveled up and down it all morning and night, no garbage littered along the sides of it's not like in the days of old before the world went radioactive and the wildlife of the woods still had a home. No human hand had touched it, destroyed its magic. Some potholes scattered down the entire way were filled with small brown puddles just asking for a child with bright new shiny rain boots to splash in. Trees that started to grow too close stretched out their roots, creating dips and bumps on what otherwise would be smooth areas.

Raven was on the cart that have Finn's corpse, in front of me, she insisted on coming. She blames me for what happened to Finn, I blame myself, I killed him.

"Hey, you ok?" Bellamy asks from my left and I'm forced to wake up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I say too quickly.

"You did the right thing." Bellamy says after a few seconds.

"The right thing?" I hiss. "I shoved a knife into his gut, he's dead because of me, and those people are dead because of me."

"Hey…" Now was Bell's turn to hiss. "Finn killed those people, you are not to blame, he did that, he could have stopped but he didn't."

"He killed them because of me, because all that mattered was that I'd be ok… he said that to me." I almost whisper, looking past Bellamy to a bush behind him. I see him, I see Finn standing there looking back at me.

"Clarke?" Bell asks, holding my hand. "Clarke are you ok?" He squeezes a little.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine…and now I have to live with it." I snap out of it, I look at the same bush again but Finn isn't there.

"I still say you did the right thing, I'm sure they would have done much worse these people are not like us." He countered

"You think this is a bad idea don't you?" I dared knowing his answer.

"I think we are wasting time with politics while our friends need our help." He protested

"We need their army to get to mount weather and you know it." I countered

"Their army has been getting their ass kicked by mount weather forever, what we need is an inside man. Someone to be our eyes and hears."

"Forget it, it's too dangerous."

"Clarke, if you can make it out I can make it inn." He insisted.

"NO, Bell." I affirmed and he sighed

"Since I don't take orders from you…I'm going to need a better reason."

"NO, because I don't want to lose you too, okay? Finn is gone and I'm not going to let the same happen to you. There are you happy now?" he dropped his head refusing to look at me.

"I thought I was supposed to be the big brother here." He teased and I scoffed trying to hide a smile that threatened to come up.

We kept going further no more words were exchanged that day between Bell and me. We made camp at night time, distrust still lingered between our two peoples. The grounders to the left and Arkers to the right, I made way into the middle, before I could settle in I hear Bell from behind me.

"Clarke, it's safer on our side." I glanced to my mother already settled in on her tent, close to Markus.

"We need to trust them Bellamy." He clenched his jaw at my words. "There are no more sides." I laid down on my side using my backpack as a pillow. Bellamy stood for a few seconds and then lay close to me, between me and the grounders.

I kept waking up, sleep refused to hit me, suddenly I feel a chill up my back, like a presence behind me, I slight glance back but refuse to acknowledge what it was. I try to go back to sleep even if it's for just a few more minutes.

Morning comes and we get back on the road, the sun is up by the time we reach TonDc. This time the commander and her guard take point, Bell, me, mother and Marcus are in the middle and the rest of the guards, the cart carrying Finn's body and Raven is in the back.

The commander's body guard approaches us with a metal basket.

"We have to disarm before we enter." Lincoln says passing me and Bell handing his sword. Bell and I exchange a look of concern but we regrettably concede. The body guard walks to Raven and she doesn't hand her weapons. He starts to search her and finds them, all of them.

" _Heda, em clear._ " (Commander, all clear). He informs the commander and she nods. We head into the village. Four grounder men are carrying Finn's corpse on a stretcher, they follow us close by.

" _Heda, Heda. Mounin houm!_ " (Commander! Commander! Welcome) The people of the village start to cheer at the sight of their commander, but soon their cheers turn angry. These people are not happy to see us.

" _Stedaun gon Skaikru! Ripa gon we houm!_ " (Death to Sky People! Murderers go home!)

Further ahead a man, small build stands blocking the way further. He starts to speak in their language. " _Skaikru don jak etin op kom ai: ai houmon, ai yongon_." (Sky People took everything from me: my wife, my child.)

" _Sef of_." (Move aside) the commander's body guard orders but the men refuse, the commander look to her body guard and signals him. The taller man moves to the smaller man and starts to hit him hard. The man on the ground doesn't stand a chance against the one hitting him.

I move closer to the commander and whisper pleadingly. "Commander please stop him, they'll blame us for this too." I see her jaw clench for a second

" _Teik em kik raun_." (Let him live) she orders her guard and he stops hitting the small man. Another grounder helps the beaten man to his feet and takes him away. The commander takes a few steps forward and turns addressing her people. "The sky people march with us now, anyone who tries to stop that, will pay with their life." I glance to the side and see her people swallow hard at her words, some don't even blink. After her words of warning she turns and moves further into the village.

"Warm welcome." I hear Bellamy mutter from my left and I sigh. We follow her.

At the center of the village there was already a pyre ready to begin the death ritual, some people were already spread around it waiting for the commander to initiate the ceremony.

 _Kru kom Tondisi. Raun faya, oso wada klin laudnes-de kom fotaim._

"People of Tondc. In fire, we cleanse the pain of the past." Lincoln translated from behind me. Indra hands a lit torch to her leader and steps back to her spot, hands behind her back gaze fixed on the pyre, on her people, the people Finn killed.

The commander takes the torch and stands there with it for a second or two before turning to me and calling my name. "Clarke." I look up to her she signals for me to take the torch. I hear some whispering from all sides, her people don't appreciate the gesture.

I step closer to her and take the torch. It feels heavy I wonder if my guilt adds to its weight. I hesitate a little, the commander glances at me my hand starts to shake. After this Finn will be gone for good, oh so I thought.

I see Finn to my right it can't be real, he is dead. He gently holds my hand and directs it to the pyre and it is done, it is lit. The fire soon began to have life of its own. At first the smoke was all that filled my view, then a bright glint of orange. The fire screamed and i had to hold back a sob of my own as i watched the pyre burn up in flames " _Yu gonplei ste odon."_ (Your fight is over.) I whisper and step down throwing the torch into the pile of wood under Finn's corpse and watch it burn.

It takes a while for it to completely burn down I take a look at my father's watch and it's already past mid-day. "I lost someone special to me too." The commander starts, both hands on her sword "Her name was Costia, she was captured by the Ice nation whose queen believed she knew my secrets…" I look at her and then she continues. "…because she was mine…they captured her…tortured her…cut off her head." I inhaled a sharp breath.

"I'm sorry." I whisper but she manages a deadpan expression.

"I thought I'd never get over the pain…but I did."

"How?" I asked rubbing my knuckles.

"By recognizing it for what it is…weakness."

"What is? Love?" she nods. "So you just stopped caring…for everyone?" I inquire and she nods again. "I could never do that." I sigh

"Then you put the people you care about in danger and the pain will never go away. The dead are gone Clarke and the living are hungry." I almost shiver at her words after she left my side to join her people.

I stand there for a few minutes watching the scorched remains of wood nothing but ash now.

"Klark…" I turn to the deep voice, it was Anya. "Come, the feast is ready, they are waiting for you." She turns heading to the entrance of were the feast would take place, I follow close behind. "You should be glad you took that boy's life cause if it were up to us he would have faced a much worse fate."

"How can you say that? Does life mean so little to you people? Have you no heart too?" I growl clenching my jaw and fists.

"If death has no cost life has no worth, it's how we live. You are not up in the sky anymore Klark, I'm not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don't. Move on and move out."

"How about Tris? Not sentimental about that either?" she stops walking and slowly turns to me with an irate look on her face, I see her jaw clench and her nostrils flared. She walks to me and stops inches from me grabbing my elbow.

"Don't you dare mention her again…you hear me?" she hisses furiously. I hold her gaze for a few seconds but drop my eyes.

"I'm sorry…that was a low move." I look back up at her and she calms down a little her emotionless face emerging again. She lets go of me.

"Come…the commander doesn't like to wait." She turned and I followed her inside the building.

Marcus was at the entrance paying real attention to what was going on between me and Anya, he gave me a concerned look and I just sighed. Anya walks past him and into the building before I could get in as well Markus steps in front of me.

"Is everything ok, Clarke?" he asks with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine, can we get inside and get this over with?" Markus stood straighter and nodded.

"Sure…" he made way for me to enter "…your pack is already inside." He informed and we both got inside.

The room wasn't large but it wasn't small either, there were several lit candles spread across the four walls. At the center was a large rectangular table displaying a varied amount of wild game, fruit, vegetables and drinks? It looked very inviting. The commander was at its center with her generals and bodyguard by her side. I approached my place at the table with Marcus by my left and my mother at my right, the rest of the people filled their places as well.

"Please accept this gift Commander we drink this on special occasions, I believe this qualifies." Marcus grabbed a bottle from his pack and handed it to the commander. The grounder leader accepts Marcus' gift by signaling to her body guard to take it and hand it to her. She grabs the bottle eyeing it for a few seconds, almost curiously.

"Thank you, Marcus of the sky people."

"You are welcome, Lexa kom trikru." She almost smiles at Marcus' words. So that's her name- Lexa. "Just don't drink too much it will go straight to your head." He added, I see the commander inhale a deep breath and blow out slowly

"Clarke let us drink together." The commander suggests looking at me.

"It would be my pleasure." A wary smile surfaced on her lips, a man came with two cups and gave them to Lexa she filled the cups with Marcus' gift.

"Heda allow me." The commander hands the cup to the large man, he sniffs and then tastes the drink his eyes never leaving mine. After tasting it he gives it back to his leader.

"Tonight we celebrate our peace, our new found peace, tomorrow we plan our war." She begins addressing everyone in the room.

"To those we've lost and to those we shall soon find." She raises her cup at me and I do the same.

Her body guard suddenly begins to choke almost falling over the table, the tension begins to fall as he drops backwards against the wall. Bellamy slaps the cup off my hand. I see people stiffen around me as the man coughs harder.

"It was the sky people." Indra accuses, I glance at Anya she looks suspiciously at us. My people gather around me, Bellamy in front.

"This wasn't us, you have to know this wasn't us…" I yell at the commander, she across the room, knelt down close to her bodyguard, her face looked crimson with fury.

" _Sou nou teik em wan op_." ( Dont let him die) she commands.

" _Pat emo daun_." (Search them) Indra growls and the grounder begins to frantically search us for evidence.

"No, no…we didn't do this…" I argued.

"Gustus warned me about you, but I didn't listen..." she growled.

"Lexa please…" I plead while a grounder is searching me.

"Tell me something Clarke, when you plunged the knife into the heart of the boy you love, did you not wish that it was mine?" I look away from her gaze and See Finn behind her. Yes, yes I did.

" _Heda, Dison don kamp raun em okou_." (Commander. This was in her coat) A man said from behind me, he was next to Raven, he had a small vial in his hand.

"That's not mine, he put it there when he searched me." She yelled looking between the man and the commander. I glance at the commander when she receives the small vial from the grounder man, her jaw clenched she looked furious.

"No sky person leaves this room." She growls. The grounder people leave the room leaving us.

"Do something." I hear O whisper to Lincoln.

" _Indra, hod op! Teik ai chich op kom emo_." (Indra, wait. Let me speak for them.) he begged.

" _Yu sou laik emo_." (You ARE them) She hissed shutting down the metal cage door.

"This is not good." I pace a little back and forth. What am I going to do?

I wiggle my wrist watch and it shows, that we've been here locked for almost an hour. "Raven, I need to know the truth."

"I'd step off if I were you." She threatened.

"You wanted me to kill Lexa yesterday. If you tried to poison her I need to know."

Out of nowhere she hits me across the face. "You are the only murderer here." She steps in front of me accusing. My mother and Octavia hurry to our side. I see Finn again.

"Leave me alone. You gave me no choice, why did you have to turn yourself in?" I urged but got no answer, it made me even antsier. Raven, O and my mother exchanged looks not knowing what I was saying.

"Baby are you…?" I started breathing hard, this place was getting shorter and shorter. I was beginning to have a panic attack. I move away from them and sit on a chair at the far end of the room.

A few minutes pass and my mom approaches and kneels down in front of me with a pained expression. "Listen to me Clarke, I know how you feel like the pain will never go away, but Lexa is wrong. You won't be haunted by this forever, the pain will fade. What got me though was loving you." She reaches forth and hold my hands. She was talking about what happened to my father.

"You are talking about dad? What I did to Finn was nothing like you did to him."

"Don't do this now, Clarke." She pleaded. "I was protecting everyone. I didn't have a choice. You did."

"No."

"Yes, you turned him in."

"No, I trusted Thelonious to talk to your father and convince him not to go public."

"You knew dad would never stop, you knew what would happen to him."

"I was protecting everyone too. I was protecting you." I sit up walking away from her. "Clarke please." She begged getting up

"We are the same." I whisper realizing it. She closed her eyes for a long second and dropped her head. I walk past her and go sit down by the stairs at the entrance, after a while Marcus came and sat down close to me.

"Tearing each other and yourself apart isn't the way to get through this." He scolds and me and mother exchange looks.

"Lexa needs this alliance as much as we do. She showed herself to be flexible. She listens to you."

"She thinks we tried to kill her…"

"We know we didn't. So let's figure out who did. Who would want her dead?" Marcus asked

"Too many to count." Lincoln answered me. "Forming an alliance with you was a risk, especially after what Finn did to those people." He continued

"So it had to be someone trying to break the alliance." Octavia concluded and I nodded. The metallic gate behind me clings and Markus and I sit up and step back.

Nyko, Indra and another group of grounders walk in. "How's Gustus?" Lincoln asks.

"He will live." Nyko answers

"Take her away."Indra commands looking straight at Raven. Two grounders walk to Raven and grab her.

"She didn't poison anybody." Bellamy protested but it didn't work.

"I argued for all of you to die, but the commander is merciful she just wants one." A smile dangled in the corner of her lips.

"She's innocent." Lincoln spoke.

"I don't care." She responded walking down the few stairs. "They move; they bleed." She threatened. A grounder grabs Raven even after Octavia tried to protest but to no effect. She is taken away. "The rest of you are free. When she's dead so will be the alliance…" she glances at me. "You should run." She walks out with her guards leaving the metal gate open.

"We should get out of here." Marcus advices. Bellamy storms out the door followed by Octavia and Lincoln. I glance at my mother, her jaw clenches and I see her stiffen. Marcus leaves as well and my mother close behind him.

This is truly happening, they are going to kill Raven, what do I do? I hear her scream, my hands start to shake, a pace frantically around the room. Another scream.

I look the left and Finn is there. "Say something." I hiss and he looks to the ground, to the cup.

"Clarke now." I hear my mother yell from top of the stairs.

"It wasn't in the bottle…" I realize and walk up the stairs passing my mother and friends. I see Raven tied to a wooden pole, her arms were bloodied with cut and so was her stomach.

"Clarke stop, you'll get yourself killed." Bellamy hurried beside me.

"I need that bottle." I ask Nyko and he nods going to get it. "Stop." I yell before some grounders try to bar my way forward.

"Let her pass." The commander instructs to her guards and I walk pass them.

"One of your people tried to kill you Lexa not one of mine."

"You should have run." Indra growls. Anya is behind her she only glances at me and back at where ever she was eyeballing before.

"I can prove it." Lexa's pupils dilate and Anya's attention is back on me. Nyko hands me the bottle Marcus gave Lexa as a present and drink from it. It burns down my throat as I try not to cough out the flaming liquid.

The commander looks at me expecting what happened to Gustus to happen to me but it doesn't. "Explain." She demands.

"The poison wasn't in the bottle, it was in the cup."

" _Dison feik au, Heda. Nou ge pon klin_ " (A trick, Commander. Don't be fooled.) Gustus whisper in Lexa's hear.

"It was you." Bellamy accuses him. "He tested the cup, he searched Raven." He continued. Lexa swallows hard turning to Gustus.

"Gustus would never harm me." Lexa defends him.

"You weren't the target, the alliance was." I glance at Bell and he nods.

"We didn't do this and you know it." The commander's lips set in a thin line.

" _Yu don ge finga au, Gostos._ _Ron ai ridiyo op._ " (You have been accused, Gustus. Speak true.) The tall man's lips screwed into irritation.

"This alliance would cost you your life, Heda, and I could not let that happen." The commander locked slack-mouthed and she wasn't the only one.

"This treachery will cost you yours. _Teik em set raun ona tri_ " (Put him on the tree). Two grounders walk to him and grab him, he does not retaliate.

Bell, mom and Marcus run to Raven and set her free from her bindings. Nyko gives my mother a blanket and some bandages and she starts to bandage Raven's injuries.

The people of TonDc start to cut Gustus, one after the other, they all take turns inflicting their share of punishment. By the time Lexa approaches her once former body guard, the men had more than several cut across all over his body. He was bleeding from everywhere. He struggled to stand but he did stand.

"This would have been Finn." I hear Raven whisper in front of me, she glances back at me and I see a pained expression.

" _Ste yuj_." (Be strong) He whispers. Lexa unsheathed her sword and took a breath getting into position.

" _Yu gonplei ste odon_." Was her words before she pierced his heart with her sharp sword. A second later he was dead.

"We are not so different, are we?" My mother asks. No one answered. I looked to the side, to Bellamy remembering his words, they would have done this to Finn. _Why don't I feel better about it?_

The commander offered accommodations to us but knowing how her people welcomed us a few hours ago I argued that it would be better if we sat up camp inside the village and avoid more unpleasentries. She agreed with me.

"Commander?" I approach her, she was talking with a villager.

"What is it Clarke?" she tilted her head to the side. I looked to the man and I hesitated. She noticed and dismissed him, he bowed respectfully and she turned to face me.

"I huh…" I dropped my eyes from her gaze.

"I'm sorry…" She raised an eyebrow. " I'm sorry about Gustus…I know how much he meant to you…well I don't but I can imagine." I shifted from foot to foot looking back up at her. Her lips were set in a prim line, Lexa sighed and then she nodded.

"Guys…" Raven yells from her tent, setting up and walking with us.

"What is it?" Bellamy asks, sitting up quickly.

"Listen to this…" she brings the radio with her and its working.

"47 of us are trapped inside of Mount Weather, they have taken him alive-" The voice in the radio urged.

"Talk to him. Say something…" I hurry.

"It's repeating." Raven explained.

"They're alive." Octavia praised.

"We need to do this now. We've got the alliance now is the time to use it." Bellamy hurried.

"First, we need an inside man. You were right. Without someone on the inside to lower their defense's and shut down the acid fog an army is useless. You should go."

"I thought you hated that plan, that I would get myself killed." He reminded me.

"You damn know it might happen, it's a possibility, but I have faith in you, I know you can do this. You have to." I reasoned and he stood straighter.

"Putting all the pressure on me? That will make me feel better…" He teased rubbing the back of his neck.

"Don't be a jerk you jerk." He smirked.

"Take my map of mount weather, find a way to get into that radio and tell us everything." I hand him the map and he takes it. "Good luck." I walk away, after a few steps I walk back to him and hug him. I hear him chuckle and hugs me back. Lincoln and Octavia smile a little. "Don't get killed." I plead. "Or I'll kick your ass." I threaten and he chuckles. I look at Raven and she nods.

I start to walk back to Lexa when I get the same chill up my spine I felt the night before we reached TonDc. I look to the side and Finn is there. I swallow hard and approach him.

"What are you still doing here? I ask him and he just looks at me. "Aren't you suppose to walk into the light or something?" He cocks his head to the side and smiles a little. I sigh frustrated

"Listen, I thank you for what you did, if it wasn't for you, Raven would have…" Man I don't even want to think about it. Finn takes a step closer to me and I freak out a little.

"No Finn, you are not real, you can't be real, and you are dead. What is this? Punishment? No.. This is my guilt talking." He steps closer again and raises his hand to my face and I close my eyes and lean into it. Try to.

"Clarke…" My mother calls from behind me scaring me a little.

"This is for you." She holds a small flask bottle with her hands. "…they're ashes from the fire, I thought maybe you want to scatter them somewhere…might help say goodbye."

"Give them to Raven, she's more deserving than I am." I walk back to Lexa and we head back inside the building to discuss the plan of action.


	7. Chapter 7

I own nothing but my own creativity and Oc's, I hope you like it let me know what you think. I'd like to thank caitlin141414 for the brainstorming and editing of this chapter. Thanks you.

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I've been seated at this table since I woke up, the commander gave me a few pieces of paper so I could draw a map of mount weather. I guess photographic memory comes in handy in certain occasions. Drawing is a passion of mine, I have it since my father gave me my first pencil and draw book. I remember the look on his face, the contented smile when he realized I got so excited about that gift.

"Clarke." Lexa calls from my side and I look up to her.

"You haven't eaten your breakfast."

"What breakfast?" I ask looking at the table, there was a small plate with a few pieces of meat and fruit.

"Oh… I… er… I'm sorry I got distracted by this." I went back to my drawing.

"Clarke." She called again, she sounded a little annoyed.

"Yes, commander." I sighed, looking up.

"Eat your breakfast." Her eyes narrowed at me. It sounded like a command.

"I have to finish this."

"Later, after you've eaten your breakfast." Her brows bumped together in a scowl. "KLARK." I sighed.

"Fine, if I forget any details, it's your fault." I said, biting down a piece of apple. "There, you happy?" I ask with a mouth full, she smiles with a gleam of mischief. Lexa sat down across from me, she wasn't wearing full armor nor her face paint. She took the sketches I've finished and started analyzing them. I kept eating, the meat first and then the fruit. I must have been hungry cause it was delicious.

I wonder how she got to this position, grounder world looks pretty ruthless. Their policy is blood for blood, not that it was any better on the Ark, every crime was a capital crime, the only thing that saved me from being floated or any of the 100 that came down with me was the fact that everyone was under 18 years old, otherwise I would have been floated just like my father was. Is trying to warn the people about a serious malfunction in the air system a crime? It was and he died for it.

Her hair was a rich shade of mahogany. It flowed in waves to adorn her glowing, slightly tanned skin. Her eyes, framed by long lashes, were a bright, emerald-green and seemed to brighten the world. A straight nose, full lips - she seemed the picture of perfection. Had she smiled, the world would sigh with contentment. Had she laughed, the world would laugh with her. And had she wept, the whole world would want to comfort her.

She looks up at me and I shock on a piece of apple. I sit up abruptly and bend forward, trying to breathe through my nose. Lexa comes quickly to my side rubbing my back.

"Clarke, are you all right?" She asked worried.

"I'm…fine." I coughed wiping the tears from my eyes. "I'm fine." I say taking a deep breath. "This is the first and last time I'll do anything you say." I tease looking at her sideways.

"Well if you'd chew on your food properly that wouldn't have happened." She chided and I scoffed. Before she turned from me I saw a smile dangled on the corner of her lips.

"It warms my heart to know that my almost death amuses you."

"You were staring." She accuses amused.

"I was not!" I argued quickly, shit she caught me looking at her. My heart skips a beat. She cocked her head to the side and chuckled a little and I hissed.

"Heda, the generals is here, we are ready to begin." Anya enters the room and announces the news. She glances between me and the Commander, Anya's forehead puckered. I look away to the wall on my side avoiding her eye contact. My heart is still racing.

"Send them in." Lexa commands and Anya bows and leaves. Lexa looks at me with her still amused look on her face and I bite down my tongue not wanting to give her more fuel to tease me. I walk back to my map and hand it to her. She holds my gaze for more than a few seconds.

"Who's staring now?" I snapped and her smile widened. A second later the grounder generals begin to enter the room and Lexa got into commander mode. I take a deep breath and gather my thoughts, I hope Bellamy makes it, cause if he doesn't we are all screwed.

"Thank you all for coming at a minute's notice." She greets her warriors while they gather around the central table.

"We are gathered here today to discuss the best plan of action against mount weather." I notice her warriors stiffen at their enemy's reference. "Clarke." I nod and continue.

"Last night Lincoln and one of my people left Tondc in search for a way into mount weather through the mines. I believe if there is someone that can help my man enter the mountain is Lincoln." I glance at the grounders in front of me and some show a hint of disdain after hearing Lincoln's name.

"It is true that Lincoln was a reaper, but that time is no more, I'd trust him with my life." A few grounders fold their arms across their chest and scoff. I glance at the commander and she nods.

"How will they enter? If it were that easy we would have done it already." A younger grounder next to the commander asks shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"There is a door but that door only opens from the inside. You can't enter without a pass code" he raises an eyebrow and rubs his hands together.

"How do you know?" a taller grounder to my left asked.

"I saw it, before Anya and I could escape, I was almost taken to it, that's when she showed up and took care of the two guards, then we ran to the end of the tunnel and jumped off into the river." Anya was against the wall in front of me with her arms folded across her chest and stoic look, she nodded.

"Clarke is right. The mountain man must have had that door reinforced. We won't be able to use it again, not from the outside." She backed my argument.

"This argument is a waste of time….if they can't breathe our air why don't we just open the door and be done with it? Let them burn." a bulky bald grounder with a scar across is right cheek growled. A few of the others around him agreed by repeating his words let them burn in anger.

"It won't work because they have a containment system, multiple air locks just like we had on the Ark. Our inside man can shut that down." I tried to reason

"IF…he gets inside." The bulky grounder countered

"What if we shut it down from the outside? You say the dam gives them power…let's get that away from them." The commander added.

"That dam would stand a nuclear war commander…I highly…" The bald grounder furiously slams his fist into the table surface not letting me finish my response.

"All she offers is NO…" he growls.

"Quint…" the commander objected by shaking her head a little to him.

"Apologies commander…but the biggest army we've ever had awaits for us to give it a mission the longer that takes the more of our people die inside of that mountain." He appeals to their warrior pride.

"Is the same for all of us…" I exclaimed

"We've lost thousands…how many have you lost girl?" he almost growled narrowing his eyes at me.

"It doesn't matter how many I've lost…I'm getting my people out of that mountain with or without you." He scoffs at my words and stands straighter.

"She said she has a plan, I say waiting for one man to get inside is not a very good one."

"I agree with Quint. We have an army let's use it." The younger grounder from before informs gaining an amused look from Quint.

"We will, after Bellamy lowers their defenses turns off the acid fog I don't care how many man you've got once that acid fog is activated you won't be able to outrun it. If you can't get to your enemy you can't win." I try to reason with them.

"YOU are the enemy." Quint growls eyeing me furiously.

"What's your fucking problem?" I hiss.

"You burned my brother alive in a ring of fire." He pointed out stepping close to me. Byrne walks to my side.

"He shouldn't have attacked my ship." I walk to him and stare him down, he smirks.

"You are very brave under the commander's protection."

"Leave her out of this… you wanna go?" my jaw clenches this guy is getting on my nerves.

"Nou mou." (Enough) the commander orders.

"Ai ni nou hon hukop, ni kom disha kru." (I won't be in an alliance with these people.) He sneered walking away from me. The commander followed him with her eyes until he stopped on the other side of the table.

"Quint is right…" Lexa agrees with him. "Waiting for Bellamy is not a plan…is a prayer. One that's not likely to be answered." I sigh heavily and rub the back of my neck.

"Excuse me…I need some air." I walk away and exit the room taking a deep breath once outside.

"Things were tense in there." Byrne offers standing beside me and I bit my lower lip.

"Things will never be easy between us and them…as long there is a "we" and a "them"…they see us as the enemy we see them as…"

"The enemy?" she completes my trail of thought and I almost nod.

"You agree with that asshole then?" I ask and I see a small glimpse of a smile circling her lips.

"He is making things difficult." I nod at her words.

I start walking forward and she accompanies my steps. "I want to be alone for a while, I need some space to breath." She shakes her head negatively.

"I'm not leaving you alone out here. I promised your mother I'd look after you."

"100 feet?" I offer and she straightens her pose.

"No, 5 seconds and there is no negotiating here." I smirk and she raises an eyebrow.

"A lot of things can happen in 5 seconds." I tease and she chuckles.

"You are not helping your case Clarke."

"Just sayin'.' I shrug and walk out of the village and into the woods for a little fresh air.

I walk a little though the woods trying to clear my mind knowing that Byrne would be close. I need to figure this out, we need a plan to follow up Bellamy's entrance into mount weather. I reach for the back of my pants and grab my gun, checking the bullets and flexibility of the barrel. I hear something snap to my right and I see him there. Quint. A few feet away from me only a few trees between us and some terrain. He is smiling wolfishly at me. I walk slowly to my side using the trees as cover if he tries to attack me. I noticed he was carrying his bow and quiver.

"Not so brave now are you sky girl?" he asked teasing.

"Come closer and find out." I offer holding my hand gun tighter, I walk around a tree and I no longer see him. I take a step further and an arrow almost hits me. I look to my side and he snarls. "You missed." I sassed and he reaches for another arrow, my heart skips a beat and I turn and start running away.

My heart is beating fast and I stop taking a few breaths. I hear someone approaching and aim my hand gun at the individual. It's Byrne. "Byrne thank god, its Quint…he is trying to…" She turns and I see her entire right arm was pulled out.

"Save yourself…" she warns before falling down. I start running again in the opposite direction, a few feet away I'm tackled to the ground by Quint. He straddles me by gripping my throat, I reach for his thumb and pull his massive hand a few inches away from my pulse point and bite down as hard as I could he grunts but pushes down forsaking the pain my bite causes.

"For my brother…" He growls and pulls his knife with his other hand and tries to stab me but before he could claim his kill another knife hits his knife hand and he hisses falling to the side. I quickly get on my feet aiming my gun at him. I look to the side and the commander was there accompanied by that younger grounder from the meeting.

" Jomp em op en yu jomp ai op." (Attack her and you attack me) he commander says yanking her dagger from his forearm.

"Thank you." I whisper to her and she eyes me a few seconds.

"Where is your guard?" she asks upset.

"He killed her." I hiss.

"Em ste spichen." (She lies) he eyes me suspiciously standing up.

"Ai gonplei kamp raun em en nou moun" (My fight is only with her) He continued. The commander and the younger grounder exchange looks and the commander ease her pose.

"Yu gomplei ste odon." (Your fight is over) The commander informed and he stiffened. "The kill is your Clarke." The grounder leader looked me in the eye sheathing her sword.

The commander and her young guard step back waiting for me to take the kill. I eye Quint a second and he swallows hard gripping his injured hand. I shift from foot to foot not wanting to do this.

A deep guttural sound pierces our ears we all turn back at the possible threat. "What is that?" I whisper, my heart pounding faster by each second that passed.

"Pauna."(Gorilla) The muscles in Lexa's face tightened. She unsheathed her sword and cut Quint's back leg. "RUN." She yells and I we start running as fast as we could. "We need to hide." Lexa warns.

"This way I found something." There was a large pipe to my right, I head to it and remove the metal grill and we get inside.

Once inside we realize that getting in may have been a mistake, there were both animal and human remains everywhere we looked. "What is this place?" I whimpered in shock.

"It's her feeding ground." Lexa reveals and my heart freezes.

"Let's go." Another feral growl approach and we start to climb the bloodied rocky steps. Hoping for a way out of this or a hiding spot.

The beast growls again and this time is much closer, the commander unsheathes her sword and I grip my hand gun waiting for the beast to show its face. Out of nowhere a large gorilla jumps in right on top of the young grounder. The beast pounds and pounds him until he is no more tossing him into the wall.

The monster growls beating up its chest, threatening to attack us at any moment. I don't wait another second and shoot it. The shoots made it take a step back but it also made it angrier, it grabbed a massive rock and threw it at us missing our heads by a few inches. I shot it a few more times, this time it fell back. But got back up again I grab Lexa's arm and we start to run again.

I realize that we have to jump down further into the animal's domain. So I go first and Lexa goes next. The second I hear her hit the ground I look back at her whimper, she fell on her side and I run back to her and help her get up, the shock from the falls still lingers in my right foot. So we try to walk to an entrance at the end of the small hall. The beast follows us down into its lair and we try to hurry I crawl first into the small hole and then I try to help the commander in. but the beast grabs her foot and tries to pull her away. Lexa instinctively grabs the metallic wall with her good arm and yells at me to leave her behind but I refuse, I grab my gun and start shooting that fiend until there was no bullets left. After it left her leg I pull Lexa in and close the door.

I help her back to her feet and we walk to a large door, once inside the room I lower her gently, take her sword and close the door using her sword as a lock.

"That wasn't so bad." I try to ease the mood and she rolls her eyes at me after a pained growl.

I take a look around the room and we are trapped inside. I look at the commander and she looks very uncomfortable, probably due to the pain in her arm. "Let me take a look at that." I point at her arm and she nods. I gently feel her arm trying to figure out if it's broken.

"That was a gorilla and you said it was female?" she nods.

"Did you know they used to be vegetarian? They'd eat mostly leaves and bamboo shoots and fruits, I guess the radiation must have changed their diet." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You are lucky it's only dislocated, I can pop it back into its socket if you want." She nods. I attempt to rotate the shoulder blade, dislodging the humeral head, and allowing spontaneous relocation. "There, back in its place. It may hurt for a while. I have some morphine in my backpack. It will help with the pain, I'll give it to you once we get out of here." I let her know and she snorts. "Keep your arm close to your chest…" I instruct removing my belt.

"Here." I use it as a shoulder immobilizer and gently circle it around her arm and neck. "You should have left me behind." She scolds, obviously upset. "Now two will die here instead of one." Are you serious?

"I'm still new to your culture, but…once someone saves your life …my people say thank you." I say walking away yanking the cage bars trying to find a way out of this place.

"I'm serious Clarke, to lead well you have to make hard choices." She spoke and I turn upset.

"Hard choices? You are telling me that?" I ask clenching my jaw and fists.

"I've seen your strength its true…but now you waiver, you couldn't kill Quint, you couldn't leave me behind. That was weakness." Frustration crinkled her eyes.

"I thought love was weakness." I corrected walking away.

"Mockery is not a product of a strong mind, Clarke." My body stiffened at the remark and I turned back at her.

"You wanna know why I saved you? Because I need you…God forbids one of your generals becomes commander, you may be heartless Lexa but at least you are smart." I explained inhaling a deep breath and blowing out slowly. A slow and genuine smile dangled across her lips.

"Don't worry…my spirit will choose much more wisely than that."

"Your spirit?" I arched a slight brow.

"When I die, my spirit will choose the next commander." She continued so sure of herself.

"Reincarnation?" I ask my eyes rolling sky hard. "…that's how you became commander." I conclude and she nods.

"How are your leaders chosen?" She asked but my answer was interrupted by a loud thud above us.

"It found us." I gasp.

"Don't worry Clarke, death is not the end." Lexa tries to reassure me.

"We are not dying here." I give her an unrelenting stare and she steps away from the wall and unsheathes her dagger and gets into fighting position.

"Then get ready to fight because it is coming inn."

"Maybe we let it inn." I offer after while an idea comes to mind.

"Come here." I instruct leaning against the wall next to the door being assaulted by the beast. I wait for another slam and then slap the sword out of the door and the beast bursts inn at full force and speed. We take the small chance and hurry out and before the beast could retaliate I close the door shut locking it. The fiend slams the door a few times growling furiously.

"Let's go." Lexa hurries breathless and we leave. We went out the same way we came in through the pipe.

We walk for a while but I notice Lexa is limping and is in pain so we decide to make camp and try to rest for a while.

"I'll gather some wood for the fire, will you be okay for a few minutes?" I ask and she smiles fondly making me blush a little.

"I'll be fine, Clarke." She reassures gripping her side dagger.

"Okay…" I look away. "…I'll be right back." I sit up and go gather some wood for the fire.

I look around not too far from where Lexa was seated and gather a few wooden sticks for the fire, I lift my jacket sleeve and take a look at my watch and it's almost 6pm.. After gathering what I thought was enough wood for the fire I go back to Lexa.

"I think it's enough to keep us warm for the night." She nods and shifts her weight trying not to further injure her shoulder.

"You should rest Clarke."

"So should you, I'm sorry I can't make you feel better but once we head back to TonDc I'll give you something to ease the pain." She held my eyes for a little and then looked beyond me.

"Can I use your dagger?" I ask her and she raised an eyebrow.

"Please?" I chuckle and she smiles a little.

"I need it to scrap my jeans for some lint so I can start a fire." She hands it to me and I do as I said, I scrap my jeans for some lint and once I have a small peace I get my magnesium stick and try to create a spark with Lexa's dagger. I notice Lexa is very interested in what I'm doing.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she asked curious.

"My father had a friend in the guard, this friend owed my dad a favor and my dad collected it by asking him to train me in advanced survival technics and self-defense."

"You can fight?" Lexa asked and I nodded.

"Ask Anya she'll tell you." I smirked and her brow arched.

"What's that?" she points at the stick.

"It's a magnesium stick or a Ferro rod if you prefer it was Finn's." I sigh a little at the mention of his name.

"You miss him?" she asks and I nod. I keep scraping until finally after a few tries we have fire, I take it to the small pile of wooden sticks and lit them creating our heat source for the night.

"There." I smile handing Lexa back her dagger. She takes it sheathing it back.

"It will be dark very soon you should rest, I'll take first watch." She offered and I nodded.

"Call me when it's my turn." I said and she complied. I laid on my side and tried to sleep.

I wake to a feral growl at a distance. "It's okay…you are safe." I hear Lexa reassure me. She was seated at the exact same spot she was before I feel a sleep, against a large broken tree branch. I rub my face and then the back of my neck.

"How's your arm?" I ask turning to her.

"It hurts." Another feral growl.

"We should get out of here that cage won't hold forever." I sit up and get ready to leave when Lexa calls my name.

"Clarke, wait." She sits up and stands before me. "I was wrong about you Clarke, your heart shows no sign of weakness." I nod holding her eyes.

"The cage won't hold." I whisper glancing back at the Pauna's lair. "I think I know how to take Mount Weather." I realized, the commander raised an eyebrow blinking a little. "We've been trying to figure out a way in but they already let us inside."

"What are you talking about?" she asked showing interest.

"Your army is already there, locked in cages, we just need someone on the inside to let them out."

"Bellamy." I nodded.

"You have faith in him?" she asked

"I do." I answer back.

"I hope your faith is well place, because if can't get inn we can't win."

"He will, Lexa this is going to work." I assure her and we walk back to TonDc.

An hour later we reach TonDc the commander is taken to their healer the second they laid eyes on her. Anya was close to the entrance of the village she watches Lexa being directed to the healer's tent. "What happened to the commander?" she asked stepping into my personal space.

"Pauna." Her pupils dilate at my words. She stands straighter and folds her arms across her chest.

"Tarcon?" she asked and I cocked my head not knowing what she meant. "The young man that was with Lexa." She specified.

"Beat up to a pulp." Frustration surfaced her eyes and forehead.

"You put the commander's life in danger."

"Excuse me? She came after me. I did nothing…then that thing showed up out of nothing and…" her eyes narrowed into crinkled slits.

"What happened to her arm?" she asked looking to a grounder passing us by.

"She dislocated her shoulder when she jumped down into the Gorilla's den." Her nostrils flare and she growls.

"It was the only safe place to lay low." I excused and she almost growled again. "We locked it back inside, sat up camp for the night and came back her and here we are. I'm fine by the way, thank you for asking." She scoffs turns and walks away. "You're welcome." I yell a little amused. I head to the meeting's room get my backpack and go find the commander.

The commander was inside a small home, simple but comfortable. Niko was inside knelt close to the commander, he was tending to her injury. "Clarke." She acknowledges and Niko looks up from his position. We both nod at each other.

"Feeling better?" I ask and she looks at Niko signaling him to leave us alone. He bows and leaves the room.

"Here like I said I have something for the pain." I reach for my pack looking for the med kit. I remove the morphine vial and needle.

"Its fine Clarke, Niko already took care of it." I glance at her for a few seconds I notice she eyes the needle a few seconds.

"Commander…are you afraid of needles?" I ask a little amused and she scoffs. "It's a common fear it's ok." She gritted her teeth and I chuckled.

"I'm not afraid of anything Klark." She sat up and stepped into my personal space just like Anya did a few minutes ago. No wonder why they are so much alike.

"Ok fine, if you don't want the morphine at least take this gel, its antibiotic." I place the morphine back into the small box and hand her the gel. "Rub it on your shoulder before going into bed." She held my gaze for a while but relented and took the gel.

"Thank you…Clarke."

"Just trying to help, commander."

"Come with me Clarke." She says and I follow her out of the room.

"This is Ryder, he will be your guard from now on." I groaned and she sighed.

"This is not up for discussion Clarke, Ryder is to accompany you at all times." Ryder was as tall as Gustus he also had a beard and braided shoulder length hair. I relented and nodded. This would be an argument I was not gonna win.

"Commander I should head back to camp Jaha and see if Bellamy made contact." She agreed.

"I'll tell Indra to take a small group with her and scout ahead for possible threats." She informed holding my eyes.

"Travel safely, Klarke." I nod and she turns and leaves. I left TonDc a few minutes later with my mother, three grounders, an ark guard then we headed back to Camp Jaha.

* * *

Here it is chapter7 i hope you've enjoyed it...reviews make my writte faster so let me know what you think, suggestions are welcome, interesting suggestions...

Later ;)


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my own characters and creativity, i hope you enjoy it. I'd like to thank caitlin141414 for all the help your the man...woman...i ...er...you know what i mean XDXDXDXD. _

_I know every one feels conpletly fucked by recent events on the 100 and i just want you to know that my story will go on as long as you'll have me. Enjoy._

* * *

I left TonDc half an hour ago with my mother and a few guards, both grounder and Arker. The commander assigned one of her warriors to me, his name was Ryder. He looked capable enough to protect me, like all the grounders do. "He's to accompany you at all times." She said, more like she ordered and then left to attend to her commander business. Lexa also had one of her people fetch us some horses, mine had a chocolate brown body with a few white markings, a true beauty and friendly too.

I never imagine that riding a horse would feel like flying but without the wings. Too bad my rear doesn't feel the same way. My mother rides in front with a guard from the ark, she insisted on coming with me and I agreed I feel like she'll be safer within our camp.

My mother dismounts her horse and reaches for her water canteen, she spots a clear water puddle a few steps away and refills it. "Mom, why are you stopping?" I ask dismounting and stepping closer to her.

"You need to drink too." She takes a sip and offers it to me as well.

"I'm fine, we are almost home." I gently squeeze her arm and she sighs. "Our scout's patrol these woods be careful where you shoot." I inform the guards and they comply.

"The grounders listen to you." Mom confirmed with a proud look.

"Lexa told them to." I claimed rubbing my back.

"What's wrong?" She asked me, looking concerned.

"My ass is numb… I can't feel my left cheek." We both laughed.

"How did you get so good at riding?" I ask her and she smiles.

"I guess I'm a natural." She answered and I shook my head a little. I feel a chill down my spine. "We shouldn't have stopped." Something's off, I feel edgy. "Mount up." I order and my mother calls me back. "Mom, I have to get back to that radio and see if Bellamy made contact…"

"Listen to me, I know you think you don't need my protection anymore, but you do… you have to trust that I know what's best for us." I nod at her words. "Let's go home. Let's move out." She orders the guards around us. A moment after I get back on the horse a shot is fired and hits the grounder behind me.

"Mountain men." I growled and went looking for them. A few feet away to the left after a small edge there they were two mountain men on the floor one dead with an arrow in his neck and the other was fighting Octavia.

"Octavia, stop." I commanded before she could slit his throat. "He is from Mount Weather we need to keep him alive. Check to see if he has a patch kit we have to get him back to camp." I could hear the mountain men groan and moan in pain, the blow Octavia inflicted severed his suite and without it there is no way these people can survive outside environment.

Octavia checks the dead mountain men's pack and uncovers some pictures. "Clarke you and Lexa were the targets." Octavia hands me the pictures, it was a picture of me and Lexa in the woods and our heads were circled in red, we were indeed the targets.

"We have to warn the commander." Indra pointed out.

 _"Sen op oso mou snap hosa ona Tondisi. Nau!" (_ Send our fastest riders to Tondc. Now!) The grounder next to me didn't even blink at Indra's command and headed out to warn the commander about the mountain's plan's to have us both dead. After fixing the men's suite we get back on the road and head back at full speed to Camp Jaha.

* * *

 **Inside Camp Jaha's Infirmary**

"He's from Mount Weather, we have to keep him alive. There was a tear on his suite but we fixed it on the field." I told Jackson while he tried to check for further injuries. "Anything from Bellamy? I ask Raven when she steps closer to me.

"No."

"Then why aren't you on the radio?" I ask

"Octavia took my place. So why don't you back off?" Raven hisses frustrated.

"No, leave it on, that is the only thing keeping him alive." I told Jackson before he could remove the mountain man's mask.

"Then how are we going to treat him if we can't touch him?" He asked and I froze.

"I could rig up some scrubbers in the airlock… gimme 20 minutes." Raven hastened away to do her thing.

"Damn it… I'm losing him. I need the blood _NOW._ " My mother hissed, Jackson tried his best to help out, but the shot grounder looked really pale, I'm not sure he is going to make it.

"C'mon stay with me…fight." Mom tried to appeal to his warrior side but his eyes rolled out in the back of his head and then he was gone.

" _Yu gonplei ste odon_." Indra approaches the deceased grounder and cut off a braid from his air and put it in her pocket. "A killer lives while a warrior dies? This is your way." She asks stepping close to me her expression filled with disapprove and hatred.

"I'm sorry Indra but he can help us beat mount weather." I told her trying to not anger the women even more.

"Then let me make him talk." Indra uttered.

"We are not torturing him." I pointed out and I saw her jaw line clench.

"Clarke is right, he might talk because we just saved his life." My mother backed me.

"You people are so weak." The grounder general raged walking away.

"Are you ok?" The chancellor asks moving closer to me.

My body starts to shake. "He's going to need a transfusion …with our blood." I tell them and Jackson nods. Before I could turn and leave my mother steps in front of me.

"Someone tried to kill you today, its okay to be upset." Mom tries to make me feel better but it doesn't work.

"Just another day on the ground. I'll be in engineering waiting for Bellamy to make contact. Let me know when he wakes up." I walk around her not wanting to stay and talk.

Once out of the infirmary and back outside I take a deep breath and start to think. Someone tried to kill me today…what else is new around here? Ever since we landed on the ground, we've done nothing but fight for our lives, every turn, every step we take there is always someone or something to push us back. I have to do something I have to get my friends out of that accursed mountain.

Indra and her warriors are scattered throughout the camp. Both sides are wary of each other, neither fully accepting the other always those narrowed expressions and distrustful looks. I notice most Arker guards follow the grounder's movement very closely only looking away a split second before any grounder looks back at them, maybe the grounders know they are being watched over, maybe they don't care or maybe they feel the same way.

It's been almost 2 hours since Raven left to build an air lock to put the Mountain men inside for treatment. We still haven't spoken more than a few words to each other…I fear she still resents me and truly I can't blame her.I walk back inside and make my way to engineering, to Raven. "Anything?" I ask her and she looks back at me shaking her head no and I sigh rubbing my forehead.

The radio is to her left on the work table, I can see she's working and I don't want to disturb her so I turn to walk away but before I could take a step outside of her workspace, I notice the glass bottle with Finn's ashes was on a shelf near some other engineering materials. I approach the shelf and grab the bottle eying it a little. Finn turned to ash inside a glass bottle.

"Hey what are you doing?" Raven sat up and approached me.

"I was just…" I try to place the bottle back on the shelf and she takes it from me holding it close to her heart. "I'm sorry." I say before I leave the room.

I walk away from that section as fast as I could when a guard calls me and tells me that my mother was looking for me and I follow him to her. The mountain man was awake, he was seated on the bed facing Kane though the glass door. "Identify yourself, what were you doing on that hill?" Kane asked the man on the other side of the glass and he just cocked his head to the side. "WHO ARE _YOU?_ " Kane continued.

"Carl Emerson, Mount Weather security detail." The man said.

"What are you doing to our people? Please answer the question." Kane folded his arms across his chest, the other men looked down and back up again. "You don't seem to be grasping the situation here…if it weren't for us you'd be dead…we saved your life. Why not help us bring an end to all of this." Kane tried to reason with the guy.

"Carl Emerson, mount weather security detail." The mountain men answered again.

"He's not gonna talk." I say going through his belongings there was pictures of me and Lexa in the woods, a map of the area and a small cylinder that looked like a flash light.

"He will if we open the door." Kane pointed out and the mountain men reacted to Kane's threat. My mother left the side of the wall and walked to Kane's side switching off the com link.

"We are not doing that." The chancellor argued focusing her stare on Kane.

"We need to know what he knows, vulnerabilities, troop numbers…" Kane tried to reason with my mother.

"She's right torture doesn't work." I say earning an approved look from my mother and a frustrated one from Kane.

"Clarke it could save your friends." Kane responses.

"I'm the chancellor…" Mother re-interred as she wondered how many times she had to repeat it so people would or in this case Kane would understand.

"Then act like one." Kane retaliated a little too loud. "I told you I would support you as long as I believed you were doing the right thing." He continued lowering his voice.

"I am and if you disagree convene a vote and take my place."

"I don't give a damn about the title I just want to save our people."

"So do I." Kane left after my mother's words she looks visibly upset.

"I want this man over 24 hour guard am I clear?" She asked the guard in front of me and he only nodded a second later she also leave the room. I glance at Karl and he looked a lot better no more visible burn marks on his face. He just sat there on the bed exchanging looks with me. Our blood heals them…I was right.

I take the cylinder with me and head to Raven's work space. I take a deep breath and step inside she was still seated at her chair. "Raven can you do anything with this?" I ask her handing over the object.

"Yeah I can duplicate this frequency." She answers back by switching the thing on. It released a deafening sound. The same sound they used to neutralize the reapers in the tunnels when I tried to escape mount weather.

"Good if we can subdue the reapers the tunnels are an option, get on it." I order, maybe I'm pushing too hard.

"You don't have to give me orders I got this Clarke." She answered back with her typical attitude.

I sigh passing back and forth. "Raven I'm sorry about earlier I didn't mean to…er…" I start, looking at the bottle now at the desk by her side. She looked back at me and then at the bottle I saw her jaw clench and her eyes stayed closed a second too long.

"Raven any word from Bellamy?" Octavia asked entering the room before Raven could mouth any word.

"Still nothing." The mechanic answered with a frown.

"Lincoln still missing too…he should be back by now." Octavia starts to grow anxious and nervous over her boyfriend and her brother.

"They'll be ok." I try to calm Octavia down.

"They better be your whole plan rests on Bellamy getting in."

" _HE WILL."_

 _"Counselor Kane and Clarke Griffin, please report to the south airlock immediately"_ I hear and hurry back to the air lock where I find my mother passing back and forth with a worried look on her face.

"Did he say anything?" Kane asked entering the room at the same time as me.

"No but his blood did. Jackson found genetic marker anomalies that could only come from someone who was born on the ark."

"It started." My blood froze.

"It didn't come from the blood transfusion you gave him?" Kane asked my mother.

"No, I took the sample before that." The chancellor answered back.

"They are bleeding my friends." I concluded.

"We don't know that."

"Yes we do we were genetically engineered they weren't." I glance at the side panel and head towards it.

"Out of my way Kane." He steps in front of me.

"What are you doing?" he asked holding me back.

"Killing him." I told trying to force my way out of his hold.

"Calm down." He urged.

"Clarke, you are not in charge here…I am. We do things my way." My mother remembered, we exchanged looks and i saw her jaw clench frustration crinkled her eyes.

I walk out the room feeling defeated I took too long to do something, they are already bleeding them. I'm too late.

"Were too late they are already bleeding them." I tell Raven, the radio was still repeating Monty's message.

"It's over." I saw looking past her, she sits up looking me with an angry expression.

"No, you don't get to give up Clarke. You killed Finn and I didn't give up." The muscles in her face tightened. Her tone wavered I saw tears in her eyes.

"I'm building a damn tone generator so do your job." She continued with fists clenched and teary eyelids.

"What is my job?" I snapped stepping close to her.

"I don't know…to come up with something, it's what you do."

"I have tried…" I affirmed.

" _ **Camp Jaha this is mount weather can anyone read me**_?" a voice on the other side of the radio blurts out, it's Bellamy.

"Holy crap." Raven whispered turning towards the radio.

"Bellamy?" I ask after Raven handed me the radio.

" _ **Clarke**_ _?"_

"It's about damn time, you jerk, I was worried sick. Are you alright?" I ask pressing the button hoping for a positive answer.

" _ **I don't know Clarke you always calling me names it's starting to hurt my feelings**_ _."_ Raven and I laugh a little at his words.

"Oh yeah what are you going to do about it?" I boasted back.

" _ **Clarke, we have to talk fast something happened something bad**_ **.** _ **Monty, Jasper and the others were locked in their dorms**_ _… "_

"But they are alive right? All of them?" I ask looking at Raven she looked worried her forehead puckered.

" _ **I think so Maya saw they are using their blood and things are going to get ugly and bad soo**_ _n_."

"Maya is there with you?" I ask remembering what I put the girl through before trying to escape.

" _ **She help me escape if it weren't for her…I'd be dead. And Clarke. there are kids here we need a plan that doesn't end up with everyone dead, please tell me we have one**_ _."_ He pleaded I noticed his concerned tone.

"I hear you but we can't do anything until you disable the acid fog. Raven is going to help you." I look at her and she lightly nods.

" _ **Got it what else**_ _?"_

"You've got to figure out a way to free the grounder prisoners there is a whole army inside that mountain and they don't even realize it."

" _ **Trojan horse. Good plan**_."

"What does Maya think is it doable?" I ask expecting a positive answer.

" _ **She says it's not a problem**_. _**Clarke, I'm we're going to pull this off I'm going to need you to buy me some time it won't be long before they realize that I don't belong here**_ _**and if that happens…"**_

 _ **"**_ That can't happen…I'll come up with something…and Bell…"

" _ **Yeah?**_ "

"You pulled through…I knew you would."

" _ **What I've done so far was not get killed**_."

"Keep doing that." I hand the radio back to Raven, grab the cylinder, sit up and walk away.

"What are you gonna do?" Raven asked me before I could leave the room.

"I'm gonna keep them looking outside instead of in." I leave the room and go straight to Indra. She was talking to two grounder males, close to the outside gate.

"Indra you and your warriors come with me please." We exchanged looks for a few seconds.

"Were are we going?" She asked gripping the hilt of her sword.

"To release the prisoner he has a very important message to deliver to his people." I answer back and her brow arched.

"This way." I turn and start walking to the airlock were Emerson was being held captive.

A guard was standing watch and he looks nervous once we approached him. "Dont even think about it." I warned and two grounder men subdued him to the side of the glass door. "Get dressed you are coming with me." I tell Emerson he steps back shocked. "Hurry up I don't have all day, it's already dark." I hurry and he complies and starts to put on his suit.

A few minutes later he's ready so I open the air lock. He stands at the entrance eyeing me and the group of grounders behind me. I look to the side and the two grounders beside me move forward and grab Emerson. "Let's go." I say leaving the room and heading towards the gate. It's already night time, a few steps further out of the Ark and the people already are circling around us.

"Clarke stop. What are you doing?" My mother steps in front of me.

"I'm letting the prisoner go." I informed and my mother almost chocked.

"Absolutely not he haven't told us anything." She countered.

"There is no need he's going to tell them _something._ "

"Get the prisoner back to his cell." Mother order's the guards close to her and once they try to approach the mountain men the grounders behind me unsheathed their swords stepping in front of me and the people around us take a step back.

"You may be the chancellor but I'm in charge. " I tell my mother and her eyes dangerously narrow at me.

"Indra tell your people to stand down before this gets out of hand." Mom asks the grounder general beside me.

"No." she answers back.

"People can get hurt." Mother warned.

"Not if you get out of my way, you need to thrust that I know what's best for us."

"The grounders trust Clarke maybe we should too." Kane this to reason with mommy dearest.

"Stand down." She tells her guards and they comply but still leaving the finger on the trigger.

She stands aside and I move forward to the gate. "Open the gate, now." I order. I turn to Emerson. "Can you hear me alright? Because I need to make sure you get this." He stands between me and a few guards.

"Loud and clear." He answers though his mask.

"I have a message for your leader, we are coming for him, you are watching us but you haven't seen a thing, the grounder army is bigger than you think. And even if you could find it your acid fog can't hurt them you and thanks to you…" I raise up the cylinder with the radio frequency. "...neither can the reapers, so you one last chance let our people go and we'll let you live, it's just that simple."

"I got it." He answered back with a ghost of a smile. I reach for his oxygen regulator and saw that he had oxygen for at least 8 hours. I pressed the button and saw the meter drop to 6 hours.

"It's an 8 hour walk back to mount weather…you are going to do it in 6." He stiffened dropping his shoulders.

"6 hours isn't enough how am I to deliver you message" he asked

"Run fast." I teased. "GO." I ordered and the few grounders that stood between him and the gate stood aside and he started running.

"Clarke you want to explain to me how this is going to help my brother?" Octavia stepped closer to be with a concerned look on her face Indra had also a puzzled look on hers.

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we _are_ near." She nodded realizing my plan.

"Bellamy is the key if he fails…we're fucked." Octavia inhaled a sharp breath and Indra kept her unrelenting stare.

"Have you and your people been provided with sleep accommodations?" I ask the general.

"We'll sleep outside…where it's safe."

"With your sword in hand?" I ask her and I swear I saw a glimpse of a smile. "So you know you and your people are welcome inside." I saw but she managed a deadpan expression. I glance at Octavia and she just shrugged. "Get some shut eye people tomorrow is a big day." I say out loud and make my way to bed.

I wake up early, my mind is fuzzy, the last remnants of a dream being chased away by the realization that I am awake again. It was a nice dream, something about sitting in a big oak tree in a meadow full of flowers and some animals I've only seen in books but the details are fading fast even as I try to recall them. With a mental sigh I allow my brain to focus and cautiously open one eye. I pull the duvet up over my head to keep it out. It's not going to work, my brain is awake now and already worrying about…

I get dressed, wash my face and head go look for a bite to heat. I stand outside the sun was already rising. It is the first thing to pierce the darkness, carrying with it the torch of a new day. You don't see it at first, it is nothing but a small warm, rosy glow, completely humble compared to the magnificence of Helio's chariot. But the newborn phoenix sun starts to shake off the ash from its soft down, and you start to see the bright red scarlet in the morning. There were already people walking about, the guards were already exchanging shifts and people were beginning to prepare for a new day on the ground.

"Skai heda." Ryder approaches me from the left.

"Yes, something wrong?" I ask him and he shifts his weight from foot to foot.

"I'm to accompany you everywhere you go. heda's orders."

"If you say so." I shrug.

"I didn't the commander did." I sigh shaking my head a little.

"Sleep well? How's the rest of your people." I ask rubbing my eyes.

"Indra and her second already left for TonDC, she ordered some of her warriors to stay behind and protect you." I nod there was a meeting today in TonDc which I was expected to attend.

"Okay I'm just going to eat something and then we'll go see Raven." He reached for the inside of his fur coat pocket and handed me a small piece of leather with something inside.

"Eat." He says, I unwrap it and there were a few pieces of dried meat inside.

"Not bad thank you." I saw biting down the hard chewy piece of meat and he just nodded keeping his tall posture.

"Okay let's go see Raven maybe she's already awake." I hand him the remaining pieces of meat and he wrapped them inside the leather cloth and back into his pocket. We both went back inside the ark. Raven was already up facing a large board.

"Good you're already awake." I say stepping inside her room.

"Still awake you mean." She answers back still facing the board.

"Has he checked in yet?" i ask stepping closer to her.

"No." She turns and eyes the tall grounder standing beside me.

"Are you worried someone on the Ark will take a shot at you?" she asked ironically.

"Wait outside Ryder." I tell him he nods and leaves.

"Lexa's orders."

"Whatever." She shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"What if something happened?" I ask glancing at the radio.

"He'll be fine."

"You've been busy, why are you focusing on the dam?" I notice some schematics of a damn laying on a table.

"I told you acid fog was our priority."

"Until Bellamy gets eyes on their dispersal system there is only so much I can do." She claims stressing me out a little.

"Fine tell me about the dam can we cut off their power?" I ask walking around her room.

"Maybe I'm still playing with a few things."

"How many of these have you made?" I ask about the small frequency cylinders.

"Only two so far but…" _OMG_

"Only two? You've been awake all night and that's all you've made? That is not enough…there will be reapers everywhere." I almost choke.

"High frequency tone generators don't grow on trees Clarke, Wick is scrounging for parts…"

"Raven I'm to be at TonDc by noon, Lexa and the heads of the 12 grounder clans are waiting for me to tell them that we are a go. Only we are not a go because they still have acid fog and we only have two tone generators." I freak out a little rubbing my forehead.

"Hey we'll be ready we will." She comforts rubbing my shoulder I sigh taking a deep breath to gather my thoughts.

" _ **Ark station can you hear me?"**_ It's Bellamy's voice on the radio.

"It's about time you are late." I scold grabbing the radio.

" _ **Are you done**_?" he asked and Raven smirked.

"Have you found the source of the acid fog?"

" _ **That's going to have to wait**_."

"What? No, nothing is more important than that."

" _ **Our friends are. They are starting to take them away from their dorm rooms. One at the time every few hours**_."

"Taking them where?" Raven asked him.

" _ **I don't know we tried to follow them but they went to a classified level. Maya borrowed the schematics of the vent system from her boss and I'm still trying to find a way in."**_

 _ **"Anything?"**_ Bellamy asks Maya.

 _ **" I think I've may have found a way in but it's going to be tight, here is the walkie Raven asked and the ear bud."**_ We hear Maya say.

"We are gonna make him mobile so he can talk to us from anywhere." Raven informs and I nod liking the idea.

"Bellamy you have to find them."

" _ **That's the plan**_." He answered from the other side.

"If you don't all of this is for nothing."

" _ **Yeah**_."

"I'll be right back." I hand over the radio to Raven and leave the room. I head out and go find Kane.

"The plans have changed I'm staying here." I inform Kane at the council room.

"The commander is expecting you." He notified folding some papers.

"Our people inside mount weather are in trouble I'm not going anywhere until I make sure they are ok."

"And what can you do for them from here?" Kane asked disliking the idea.

"You'll go to TonDc in my place, Lexa respects you. I'll get there as soon as I can." I inform him.

"Clarke wait." Kane tries to stop me by grabbing my arm, the grounder the commander ordered to follow my every steps forward unsheathing his sword.

"Put it away its ok." I order him he steps back sheathing his sword back. He takes his job very seriously. Apparently.

"Being a good leader means which battle to fight…"

"And which to delegate I know. Please I need you to go to TonDc in my place." I pleaded.

"Fine. I'll go."

"Thank you." I turn to leave and my mom enters the room.

"What's wrong?" she asked looking between me and Kane.

"Kane will explain." I tell her and she holds Markus eyes.

"Perhaps she should go she is still chancellor after all." He teased.

"Which is why she is needed here." I stated leaving the room. I go back to Raven and she was already giving instructions to Bellamy though the radio.

"Ok tell me where you are at now?" Raven asked Bell

" _ **At an interception…which way?"**_ he asked and Raven handed me the radio and went to her panel to check the correct path for Bellamy to take.

"He just passed the air filtration on this floor which puts him her…" she pointed out.

"Bellamy we think you are close the lab should be up ahead."

" _ **Can you be more specific?**_ _**Never mind I got this**_." We could hear him craw through the vents as he got closer to the lab area we started to hear a louder drilling sound.

"Is that a drill?" Raven asks my thumb was still pressed on the button of the radio.

"Bone marrow extraction." I whisper they are using my people's bone marrow to cure themselves.

" _ **You are ready for the last treatment you'll have need, lieutenant**_?" a female voice asked.

" _ **You have no idea, I waited my whole life to breath fresh air**_." A male voice answered.

"That's Emerson." I chock, he made it. He got back inside mount weather.

" _ **Let's get back to this secret army that she claims to have. She tell you anything that might help us find it**_?" another male voice asked followed by more drilling noises.

" _ **Stop drilling please**_." The same voice ordered.

" _ **The window for extraction after death is incredible short, sir**_." The female voice from before informed. Raven and I exchanged worried looks.

" _ **I only need a minute**_."

" _ **No sir, nothing about the army**_. _**She did say she was coming for you**_ _**and if we let her people go she'd let us live.**_ " Emerson say to the other man.

" _ **That's a little late for that**_." The other man said somewhat amused

 _ **"I'm sorry I failed sir**_." Emerson lamented.

" _ **No, it's ok. We'll finish the job tonight. Withman just radioed in apparently there is a war council meeting happening tonight in one of their villages and all of the leaders are going to be there…**_ " I look at Raven and we both look shocked how did they know about the meeting?

 _ **"…sir let me take a team out support Whitman…"**_

" _ **There's a better chance he won't be spotted if he works alone**_."

" _ **Sir Whitman is good but he can't take that many targets on his own**_." Emerson countered.

" _ **Which is why we are going to use a missile…this time we are not gonna miss a thing**_." _Holy fuck, now what?_

" _ **Please tell me you heard all that**_?" Bellamy asked a few minutes later.

"We heard them." I whisper back at him.

"We have to do something, we have to warn them." Raven said the muscles on her face tightened.

"Did Kane take a radio?" I ask the mechanic and she shook her head.

"No, this is the only unjammed frequency we have to keep it open For Bellamy."

"If I leave now I can make on time."

"On time to be blown up you mean." she muttered.

"Do you have a better idea? Can you do anything to stop that missile?" I ask and she drops her head.

"When I get back I want to know that our friends are safe and the acid fog is down. Can you handle that?" I ask Raven and she inhaled a deep breath.

"We can handle it…go."

" ** _Clarke wait…Octavia was in TonDc when I left…is she…_**?" he asked and just looked at Raven and she bit her lip.

"Bellamy she's…she went there with Indra. But I'm going there now so don't worry." I say not wanting to lie to him.

"Bellamy?" I ask for him but he doesn't answer back.

"Listen Bell I know you are worried but you have a job to do you can't be distracted don't worry I'll get there in time…she's my sister too." A second goes by then two.

" _ **Ok let's get this done**_." He finally answers and I exhale a breath that seemed stuck inside my lungs. I glance at Raven and she smiles a little.

"Hey." Raven calls when I was almost about to leave and she hugs me.

"Don't get blown up." She whispers and I hold her tight and then leave. Ryder was in the corridor waiting for me already. We head to the horses and prepare to leave when I hear someone yelling my name. It's Raven.

"What is it?" I run to her.

"I may have come up with a way to stop the missile." She gives me a toothy smile.

"How?" I ask breathlessly.

"Come with me." we go back to her shop.

"Well?" I ask passing a little.

"There's got to be a spotter right? It's most likely a laser guided missile which means the spotter will have to be near the target so he can guide it to the target." She asked and I shrugged.

"Ok."

"Laser designators and seekers use a pulse coding system to ensure that a specific seeker and designator combination work in harmony. By setting the same code in both the designator and the seeker, the seeker will track only the target designated by the designator. The pulse coding is based on …" Raven stops whatever she was talking about and looks at me.

"If we find the spotter they can't use the missile." Raven nods smirking.

"But how are we going to find him without him noticing? If he sees anyone approaching he may inform mount weather and they can launch it."

"I can create a signal disruptor but you'll have to get close to him for it to work." She informed frowning a little.

"I'll figure something out." I tell her and she hurries back to her workbench. She starts to look for parts and to assemble her new gadget.

"Fuck I can't believe this." She says punching the table.

"What now?" I whine.

"I'm out of high frequency transformers and capacitors." I groan at her news.

"They were right here this morning I don't know how it…" she aimed at the yellow box on the table.

"Waite there were some electronic devices and parts at the bunker Finn found. Maybe I'll find some." I tell her before hustling out the door. I grab my backpack in case I need to carry that many devices, the more the better chances of Raven finding what she needs.

Ryder and I make our way into the bunker hopefully I'll find what Raven needs. We reach the bunker sooner than I anticipated must have been the nerves. I dismount and open the bunker door and glance at Ryder he looked weary.

"You don't have to come I'll be right back." I tell him and he nods. I hurry down the steel ladder turn on my flashlight and start to look for the parts. I search every room for potential loot but I only find an old radio and cellphone. I put them inside my pack and continue searching every box and drawer.

"FUCK." I growl frustrated kicking a large plastic box to the ground. A shoe box size router falls to the ground and some circuit boards. I kneel down and look inside the thick plastic container and there were two more boxes with electronic components.

"YES." I yell excited. I check my watch and its way past noon I have to hurry back to camp Jaha if I want to make it to TonDc on time. I hurry up the ladder with my findings already on my pack so Ryder and I hurry back to camp.

"Here is what I've found." I hand the boxes to her.

"Whoa…you hit the jackpot." She laughed.

"Raven hurry we don't have much time…" I pleaded and she waved me off.

"I got this." She sat down and started working on it.

I remained inside her room pacing back and forth, every minute I checked my watch wondering why it was taking so long.

"Clarke you are getting on my nerves." Raven hissed.

"I'm sorry I can't help it, why is it taking so goddamn long?" I growl frustrated.

"You can't hurry these things…you want it to work right?" she turned her head to me with a raised brow and I sighed.

"I got this." She claimed and went back to work. I calmed a little but still checked the watch every few minutes. Finally almost ten minutes later she got it done.

"Here it's ready." I step away from the wall and hurry close to her. The device she was now holding had two antennas like the router I've found earlier and some others components.

"Clarke you have to get at least 50 meters close to him for it to work properly." She said handing it to me.

"Once close enough press this button and…you'll only have 60 seconds to act." She directed to the small switch.

"What?" I ask surprised.

"I'm sorry that's all I could do, the battery was damaged and that's the best I could come up with in this short amount of time." I rub the back of my neck and she sighs.

"Hey you got this." She holds my shoulders squeezing a little.

"I hope you are right." I said quietly and she hugs me again.

"Thank you." She whispers in my ear.

"For what?" I ask her hugging her back. She pulls away and glances at the glass bottle on her table.

"He was your family you deserve it more." She nods looking down. I turn and start to walk away.

"I know why you did it." I freeze on the spot.

"They would have tortured him at least he didn't suffer." She whispered I didn't turn to her I just walked out. I can't deal with this not right now. We get on the road again but this time we head straight to TonDC.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: i own nothing but my own creativity and OC'S.

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It was almost four in the afternoon TonDc is still a good half hour away and I'm still struggling to come up with a plan to stop that missile. Raven came up with an idea to maybe stop the spotter from communicating with the mountain and initiate the missile launch against the grounder village of TonDC. She had me go hunting for parts in Finn's bunker luckily I found a few pieces that came in handy I just hope that this little spark of hope pays off.

Finally Ryder and I reach TonDC we dismount our horses and head inside the village. Two guards at the entrance to keep watch just in case something happens. A meeting between the clan leaders has to stir up some trouble. From what I've heard there are some strife between some clans even after Lexa managed somehow to unite them under her command. Octavia meets me half way in.

"Clarke you made it."

"I need you to take me to Lexa." I hurried

"What's wrong?" She asked stopping me from walking further.

"Is Bellamy ready? Did he get the acid fog ready?" she keeps pushing me for answers.

"He is working on it. Is Lincoln back?" I ask her and she hands me a smile of pure happiness.

"He's on watch."

"Find him and bring him here." I tell her and her browns knitted in a frown.

"Octavia trust me, it's important." Frustration fills her eyes, but she nodded and leaves to get Lincoln.

The village was packed with people from all of the 12 clans, so far the only way to distinguish them is by the clothes they wear and also distinctive marks or tattoos on their skin I'm sure there are more differentials but at the moment it's all I can see. I keep walking further in and finally I find Lexa, she was surrounded by Kane, Indra and Anya.

"Clarke of the sky people has honored us with her presence." The commander says sarcastically.

"I thought you said that mockery wasn't a product of a strong mind, commander." I teased back, she narrowed her eyes and her for head puckered. I could see Anya's amused grin. Indra and Kane exchanged looks, the commander's grip on her sword tightens and I sigh. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"You are in good time, I assume the kids in mount weather are ok?" Kane asked trying to light the mood.

"For now, can we talk in private?" I ask her and she nods.

"Of course, this way." She leads the way inside the war room.

"Is everything alright? Has Bellamy disabled the acid fog?" she asked stepping close to me.

"Yes, he made contact but the acid fog is still on… there is another problem." Her lips set in a grim line.

"Last night we captured a mountain man that was sent to kill us. You and me, Lexa." She managed a deadpan expression at my words.

"I know Indra sent news of it. I also heard that you set this mountain man free." Her nose wrinkled in distaste and I shifted from foot to foot.

"Yes I released him so he could deliver a message to his leader…and now I'm starting to regret what I did it." I handed it over shame faced. "This morning when Bellamy made contact we intercepted a conversation between that mountain man and his leader." I saw the hand she kept on her sword hilt squeeze tight. "Lexa, they know we are having a meeting between all the clan leaders here in this village…and they are going to use a missile to destroy us." Her body stiffened at the remark.

"A missile? You are sure?" She asked holding my stressed look.

"We have to start evacuating now." I urged

"No." the muscles on her face tightened her former alerted look faded away and the typical emotionless act emerged.

"What do you mean no, Lexa? If we don't evacuate now everyone is going to die."

"If we evacuate now they'll know we have a spy inside their walls."

"Not necessarily and thanks to Raven and I we came up with a plan." I almost squealed.

"It's too dangerous we can't risk it." She walks away to sit close to a large table.

"You haven't even heard my plan yet." She rested her chin in her hands and looked thoughtful.

"It was difficult but we came up with a solution." I reach for my jacket pocket and showed her the small device." She looked back at me and expelled a breath.

"What is it?" she asked.

"There is a spotter on the woods if we can find him we can use this signal disruptor to block his communications with the mountain. The spotter is there to provide coordinates to the mountain without them, they can't launch the missile, we just have to find him and neutralize him." I showed her the device and she kept her gaze on it for a few seconds and then locked eyes to me.

"Clarke, we cant risk it."

"So what are you saying…we just do nothing?"

"Has the acid fog been disabled? Is our sleeping army uncaged?" she asked and I shook my head. "Then Bellamy's job is not done without him we cannot win this war."

"So what is the point of having an inside man if we can't make do with what he tells us?" I ask and her jaw clenches. "We have to try, Lexa, I just need a small group of Hunters or ninja scouts that can get to him without him knowing and that's it. Are you seriously considering doing nothing? Let them bomb us?"

"It will be a blow…but our army will be safe inside the woods and it will inspire them."

"And what about us?" I whisper a step too close.

"We slip away right now…" she answers back. …" Put this on." She hands me a piece of cloth and walks away.

"Lexa, wait…" I urge blocking her passage. "…I provoked mount weather, I sent a massage to distract them from Bellamy they are attacking because of me."

"Clarke, sometimes you have to concede a battle to win a war."

"Lexa, this is gonna work I know it will I just need you to thrust me. Or if you don't we can at least inform the clan leaders they can sneak out separately." Her brows bumped together in a scowl and her eyes rolled skyward.

"Yeah? And how many people will they tell? Where do we draw the line?" her teeth gritted in frustration.

"Then cancel the meeting…start a fire …do something…" I urged a little too loud.

"Clarke, we don't have time." She turns and starts to walk away to the exit door.

"No…NOOO….Lexa, this I wrong." I grab her elbow in a hurry and turn her to me.

"This is our only choice and you know it. You could have warned everyone upstairs and you said nothing not even to your own people. " She hisses stepping closer we were only a breath away.

"This Is war Clarke people die. You've showed true strength today don't let emotions stop you now. It's time to go." I drop my head swallowing hard. My eyes remain shut for a few seconds more. Lexa leaves I can hear the metal door ring.

I open my eyes again she did in fact leave but I'm not going anywhere so I go back through the other door. Outside I see grounders in every direction people from every clan were here for this meeting and Lexa would just walk away? Indra, Kane and Anya were a few feet away in front of me somehow Anya noticed my gaze and looked back at me. I signaled her to come to me Indra and Kane exchange looks and they too follow Anya. Octavia and Lincoln also approach us.

"Clarke what's wrong?" Kane asks and I take a deep breath.

"Do not react to what I'm about to tell you… it's important." I tell them Anya tilted her head to the side, Kane nodded and Indra kept her stoic look. Lincoln looked beaten up, his eyes were a little red and there were black shades around his eyes. "Withdraw?" I ask him and he nods shaking his head a little. Octavia squeezes his hand and he leans closer to her. "It will be hard to deal with but you are strong if anyone can do this is you." I tell him and he smiles a little, Octavia mouths a thank you to me and I nod.

"There is mountain spotter on the woods monitoring our every move." Indra's jaw clenched and Kane stiffened. "And that is not the worse part…" Octavia expelled a breath. Lincoln stood straighter.

"Why is there a spotter on the woods? Do they know about this meeting? They are here to spy on us'" Kane whispered leaning in and I nodded.

"The mountain is gonna use a missile to wipe out the village and the spotter is here to provide the coordinates." All of them went pale at my news.

"What are we going to do?" Octavia asked gently holding my arm.

"Luckily I have a plan, it is the reason I arrived so late." They regain some color, I see Kane sigh and Anya shifted from foot to foot.

"Where is the commander?" she asks and I almost freeze.

"She's doing her part." I tell her holding her gaze.

"Which is what?" she asks narrowing her eyes at me.

"That's between me and her." I tell her between clenched teeth. She throws an unrelenting stare at me but I refuse to look away.

"Clarke the plan." Octavia steppes in.

"Yeah Anya the plan." I tease and she scoffs folding her arms across her chest.

"Indra I need you to gather a small team of your best trackers or hunters and find him. " She kept her eye contact. "…he is most likely at a higher position with an exceptional view to the village. Maybe on a tree." I edged closer to her and handed her the device.

"You'll need to get at least 50 meters close to him for this to work, once close enough press both of these buttons and a high frequency tone will prevent the spotter from contacting the mountain for at least 60 seconds. That's the only time you'll have to subdue him."

"I'm going with you." Lincoln turned to Indra and her eyes narrowed to crinkled slits.

"You are going nowhere with me Ripa." She spat furiously. Lincolns jaw clenched and Octavia sighed.

"Calm down we have to figure this out." Kane urged the furious stare down between Lincoln and Indra.

"We have to do this before night time, we may not be able to find him if it gets too dark." They all nodded and I sighed relieved.

"I'll gather some hunters." The grounder spoke relaxing her stance.

"Please do but do it quietly we cannot allow the spotter to grow suspicious, take Lincoln with you he's an asset. Once it's done signal us. " Indra scoffed but relented.

"I'm coming too." Kane added looking Indra in the eye she exhaled a breath before agreeing with Kane's offer.

"What about you?" Octavia asked.

"I can't leave too it may get suspicious. I have to stay here and hope for the best. If I may add a suggestion…don't leave all at once and not through the same place. He may be watching." Before Anya could leave with the others I grab her arm.

"I need you to do something." I smirk and her brow arched.

"I need you to create a distraction. We need to keep his attention inside of the village instead of around him. We have to give them time to find him and subdue him."

"Subdue who?" a voice asked and a chill went up my spine. I let go of Anya's arm and I glance at her eyes she had a gleam of deviltry in them.

"Commander." I almost yelp.

"Doing her part?" Anya leaned in and whispered. Amusement filled every word.

"The spotter like I told you… the second part of the plan. Remember commander? The diversion?" I ask her and frustration crinkled her eyes. Anya was still to my side arms crossed across her chest.

"Onya." Lexca calls to her and she stands straighter unfolding her arms.

"Do as Clarke instructed." The commander orders and Anya only bows and then walks away leaving me with a completely furious grounder commander, the commander.

"You can't help yourself can you Klark?" she mouths my name furiously clenching her jaw.

"This could work." I tell her stepping into her personal space. Her nostrils flared I could see her eyes crimson with fury.

"If this fails…" she threatened.

"It won't."

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I may have to re-update this chapter i just wanted to post it now so some of you impatient peoples lololo could be less impatient...


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OC'S and creativity i hope you like it**

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A few minutes ago I almost had another heated discussion with the commander. I told her about my plan to stop the spotter but she immediately refused to act upon it saying it was too dangerous and could give away our inside man, it was too unpredictable.

So her plan was to slip away in the cover of night. Fuck that. I've returned to the village and gathered a few trustworthy souls to act on my plan. Indra was to gather a few quiet grounders and look for this hidden mountain man while Anya was working on a distraction to keep the spotter's attention focused inside the village instead of around him.

The problem was that Lexa caught me giving instructions to Anya. Surprisingly, she ordered her to work on her distraction. Lexa stood there holding my eyes, frustration lingered on every inch of her.

She relented her stare when she noticed that there was a small crowed paying special attention to us. It was a group of ice nation grounders…two male and two female. I never noticed before, but they had scars on their face like burned markings with a pattern. I think its name is scarification if I'm not mistaken.

"This is going to work." I whisper stepping closer to her.

"With a weapon like that you can't miss." She hissed with a low voice.

"Yes, you can… you just have to trust me." I pleaded

"I can't do that." She whispered back and walked away into the war room once again. I sighed, defeated. I just hope Indra and the others can pull this off.

It was almost dark and still there were groups of grounders walking into the village. Every step I took every direction I turned to there it was, the glaring, the whispering the gritted teeth snarls and every grounder staring daggers at me. The atmosphere was thick with frustration, not just because of me, but also due to past conflicts. I noticed that every grounder sticks to his/her own group. Not wandering around alone but always accompanied by another from his/her group.

"Watch it sky girl…something may happen now that the commander isn't here to protect you…" Someone bumped into me.

"What's your problem?" I ask turning around. It was a woman. A few inches taller than me, her face was covered with war paint but I could see the fury in her eyes. Her body was covered in a fur and leather armor, both light and dark colored, which provides significant physical protection and also keeps your temperature up, so long as it stays dry.

"You are my problem, you sky people are bringers of death and should meet your doom at the end of a sword." She growls aiming her finger at me. There were people behind her that nodded whispering and glancing at us. I look around and more people stood there just watching. I chuckled at her words, I see her jaw clench and her body language stiffened.

"Let me guess…you also had a brother that die in my ring of fire?" she unseats her sword and throws it at my feet.

"What's this?" I ask pointing at the sharp blade.

"You have a clever tongue let's see if it stands with you merit. Pick it up." She ordered grabbing another sword attached to her back. I notice Anya leaning against a wall her arms folded across her chest and her typical wolf grin.

"The commander may have fallen for your honeyed words but you won't be able to talk your way out of this. PICK IT UP." She threatened stepping into my personal space.

"Why should I when I can just use this…" I reach for my hand gun and show it to her.

"All I have to do is aim it at your head and pull the trigger. It would be painless, quick… no mess to clean up..." Her jaw clenches her eyes the gun in my hand swallows a thick breath after hearing my dark words.

"But that would be mercy…and you grounders aren't keen on that are you? No…it's an eye for an eye or as you say blood for blood."

"It is our way…a dead enemy can't fight back." She eyed me up and down. I put my hand gun away on the back of my pants and grabbed the sword on the floor. She fiendishly laughed.

"Let's see what you're made of sky commander." I raise the sword at her and get into position. "You think this wise, girl? Crossing blades with me?"

"You threatened me and know you're having second thoughts?" I widen my stance a little and relax my shoulders, she smiles. She attacks, we trade feints, thrusts and parries with lightning speed. I have no trouble matching her. Is it because I'm that good? Or is it because she's letting me match her?

"You know what you're doing, I'll give you that…excellent form...but how is your foot work? If I step here…" she makes a step around an imaginary circle and I step the other way maintaining my relationship to her.

"Very good! And if I step again, you step again…" we continue to step around the circle like dogs circling each other.

"Interesting…you learned all that in space?" she asked curiously.

"I might have learned from someone." I answered back narrowing my eyes at her.

"Your father?" she asked and my entire body stiffened at the remark, she noticed and leaped into action. She lunged at me with such speed it cost me a breath. She fakes a forward thrust and when I was to block it she switches hands with her word grabs my arm hits my wrist with the back of her sword and immobilizes me by throwing me over her into the ground.

"You wear your emotions on your face…it's too easy to read them…fix it." She scolds aiming her sword at me.

"Ow…how did you do that?" I ask rubbing my wrist and she smiles. Her smile fades in a split second and she lunges at me again I roll over to the side and grab the sword from the ground and stand ready once again.

We lunge at each other again. Nothing is wasted. No flourishes or balletic leaps or spins. Every swing is a death blow countered. The rapidity of the exchange is breathless. We both swing with such power that sparks fly whenever a sword scrapes the other. She's really good but I still have the feeling she's holding back.

The female grounder sensing the advantage, moves in a step too close. I sees an opening and slash her fur coat. She jumps back at the last possible moment, but my blade gouges out a long strip of fur from her breastplate leather armor. She eyes me through narrowed slits and exhales a breath. She removes her torn coat and tosses it to the ground. She exchange blows again and she tries to the same move from before but I take a step back before she could smack my hand again. She doesn't stop she tries another move and this time she manages to grab the sword from my hand, twists my arm and throws me over her shoulder again, I land with a thud she quickly is over me with her sword really close to my throat.

"Tsk, tsk still distracted." she mocked

"You sure about that?" I ask gun in my hand pressed against her stomach. She looks down to her belly and back at me.

"Very good. You learn fast." She commends and I smirk.

"Just because I play fair I can't expect others to do so, I got it." She chuckles.

"The lesson is over." My eyes narrow at her for a second and she smirks.

"I thought this was a threat." I say and she offers me a subtle wink helping me up.

"What's your name?" I ask her and her brow arched.

"Keep your friends close but your enemy's closer." She matches my smirk.

"Rylla."

"Clarke."

"I know who you are sky commander." A smile dangled on the corner of her lips. A low pitched sound came from the woods. Most of us looked in that direction, it was the signal.

"Looks like your plan worked, Klark." She smirked and I exhaled a breath.

"You knew?" I ask folding my arms across my chest and she nods a common trait among grounders.

"How much of that was an act?" I asked annoyed.

"That was no act, I meant every word." Her face turned serious.

"You are right about the mountain we've blead for too long it is time for retribution. Jus drain jus dawn." She walks away.

"Hey." I yell at her and she turns.

"You forgot this." I kick her sword back to her feet.

"You don't want to be ill equipped for war do you?'" she manages a stoic expression, grabs her sword sheathing it back. I see Anya was still leaning against a wall.

"Interesting way to handle things." She said humorously.

"That was your idea?" I ask a little too loud.

"You wanted a diversion…you got one." She shrugged.

"So you found the angriest grounder and set her against me?" I hiss and she chuckled.

"It worked and she's not the angriest grounder." She unfolds her arms and walks away leaving me there almost about to have a fit.

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 **You want the next chapter? Review... if you dont it will take longer *evil laugh***


	11. Help needed

I need a beta to help me further this story i have a beta but she's not enthusiastic enough ...i need someone to share ideas with and critic if needed oh and also correction and spelling stuff you know the usual beta job requirements...so if you are interested pm me and let me know if you are interested


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own creativity and Oc's, I'd like to thank sky and Blaze574 for the help you are the best take care...**

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The warm bronze sunlight was swallowed by the horizon. The bright sunny day engulfed in darkness, a welcome coolness to the land after the sultry day. The threat that occupied my mind a few moments ago now gone, the plan worked. Indra and her hunters approach from the front gate, they had successfully apprehended him.

Tight ropes now enveloped the mountain man, two of Indra's hunter's flanked him dragging him step after step as he struggled against his captors.

"There's your spotter." Indra's chest puffs a little showing off her hunter skills.

"Here he is." I smirk. A small crowd had gathered behind her curious looks and whispers displayed by many of the grounder groups.

"I believe the commander will want to welcome him to our little reunion." She scoffs, I glance at the mountain man and there was fury pouring from his eyes, he looked a little beat up it seems that he put up a fight and lost.

 _"Teik em kom the heda."_ (Take him to the commander.) Indra orders and the two hunters holding the mountain man and they drag him away.

Indra approaches me and with her typical distrustful look.

"Where is the commander?" she asks holding her sword hilt.

"She's inside…how was it? Did he put up a fight? I didn't hear any gunshots." I ask looking her in the eye.

"He didn't have time to react we were upon him before he knew we were there. That's how _real_ hunters act like." I sensed a little tension in her words like she was insulting us or just me.

"I'm glad you are that good of a hunter _General,_ maybe if not for us little mortals we'd be all dead by now." Her jaw clenches and her eyebrows squeezed together to form a crease.

"The commander is inside." Her nostrils flare giving me one last look she walks past me and heads to where the commander is. Markus approaches me.

"I have a slight impression she doesn't like me very much." I say to him watching Indra walk away.

"Indra is not the emotional type but I'm sure she means well." I scoff and he chuckles.

"She seems to like you though or at least respect you." He stood straighter and a small smile tangled across his lips.

"How was it?" I ask eagerly to know how it happened.

"Well…" he starts.

 _ **Indra POV**_

 _In less than a candle mark, the last sunrays of the day will kiss the heathland, that's when the warren empties and the rabbits are out to forage and play. They move slowly, lolloping in their ungainly way, grazing as they go. At the slightest noise they're up on their hind legs, black eyes staring in more directions than we predator animals can. Sometimes I watch them for a while, just because I need to eat, it doesn't mean I don't appreciate nature. But the prey I now seek is no ordinary animal we are hunting a mountain man hiding in the woods. Skaiprisa has warned us of his presence she gave me a device to stop our enemy from making contact with that accursed mountain, to stop him from sending a missile to into my village TonDC. I Indra kom trikru will see to it that this mountain rat will cease to exist so help me Sha'a'tu the bloody._

 _I gathered four of our best hunters Ira, Lugo, Lyra and strik (little) Tom he may be young but he holds great promise he is small and quiet, unlike these skai people they can't even walk in the woods without anything breaking. We gather around already outside of the village behind a tree line out of sight. I draw a small plan on the ground with my sword._

 _"Most of the trees in this area are stripped of branches, therefore the mountain man will be east of the main entrance to the village. The trees there are taller and can provide a better view of the village if it were me I'd start there." Ira a seasoned warrior and hunter explain pointing in that direction I nod agreeing with him. The other hunters also nod._

"We should head there as soon as possible it will be dark soon." _Kane kom skaikru beckons and I stand._

 _"What's the plan?" The traitor asks stepping closer. I can feel my blood boil with an overwhelming thirst for his blood but I manage to contain it._

 _"We need to block his escape after we track him down."_

 _"There is a hidden path east of the village it's secluded and hard to track if you don't know it the trees there are thick and tall with an exceptional view of the village." Tom whispers from his kneeling position._

 _"And how do you know of this Goufa?" he looks at me and points at the place in the improvised map on the floor._

 _"There is an oddly shaped tree close to the stream behind the village from there it's a little to the left. I used to play there before...before they took my nontu…" (father). Lyra's hand finds its way onto Tom's shoulder squeezing a little and he takes a deep breath and looks up at her wiping the small tear from the corner of his eye._

 _"I know it…" Lincoln perks up. My eyes narrow and he inhaled a deep breath and exhales slowly._

 _"Tom…" he stands straight at the sound of my voice._

 _"Lead the way…Lyra and Lugo will accompany you the rest of us will circle the opposite way and meet you there. Once the mountain man is located I'll activate the device and you'll only have a small breath to subdue him."_

 _"Subdue? Aren't we going kill him?" Ira asks almost growling. I sigh, understanding his anger._

 _"No, there are worse things than death, and an instant kill is unfitting of such a price he should suffer for every breath he stole from our loved ones, every heartbeat, every drop of blood they made us lose. The mountain and everyone inside of it will pay for all the pain they've caused us." Ira's wrath relents and nods understanding my words._

 _"Let's hope Klark comes up with a distraction to keep his mind away from his surroundings," I say sheathing my sword. I see Kane's jaw clench and he swallows a thick breath._

 _"It's Clarke, she always has a plan." This time, it was Octavia kom skaikru stepping in to defend her friend. I scoff and her stare intensifies. She's got fire I give her that._

 _"Let's hope you are right Octavia or we're all going to die very soon." Her lips set in a grim line and I smirk._

 _"Ai laik gona, ai laik yuj kom sonraun." (I am warrior I am strong with life) she stares me down defiantly and I chuckle, Lincoln approaches her from the side and holds her tight she leans into his traitorous embrace._

 _"Osir na dig em au.."_ _(We'll find out) Her body stiffened at my remark._

 _"Step lightly and watch the trees we can't let him see us, and wait for my signal." We part ways and Lincoln takes the lead followed by Octavia, Kane and myself._

 _Following this natrona (traitor) is not what I wanted but he claims to know the place Tom spoke of I hope he speaks truly otherwise his throat will welcome my blade._

 _The trees grow so thickly that there is no undergrowth at all. At our feet are only the browned remnants of branches and needles that have fallen in the recent high winds. Lincoln maintains a steady pace followed by the rest of us._

 _"Are we there yet?" asked Octavia, panting. We started our walk by following a footpath through the woods which would lead us to a wide earthen trail going higher up in the mountain's path. The tree lines were beginning to gain length Ira was right about the trees I hope Tom was too. A couple of steps in front of me Lincoln's fast pace comes to a stop._

 _"There is the tree Tom spoke of." He points to the left._

 _"From now on we go right." He continues and we press the hunt._

 _We continue moving right until further away I spot Lyra and Lugo. The track snaked around the trees and disappeared from sight. It was well worn but narrow and broken with knotted roots. Branches overhung in their quest for more sunlight, making an archway of green. Excellent spot._

 _"Hod op." I order and Lincoln and Octavia freeze on the spot. I point a little to the side and they too locate the other three. They were just a few steps away from us._

 _Lugo signals to a thick tree to my right at first I couldn't spot the reason why but as I moved a little to the side I could see something that didn't match the coloring of the rest of our surroundings. It was him up on a tree we've found the mountain man. I glance to the side towards Lugo and Lyra and see Tom close to them with his bow in hand. I signal to approach carefully I remove the device Klark kom skaikru gave me and began my stealthy approach. I could hear the sounds coming from the village, step after step I diminish the distance between me and the mountain man. My hunting companions follow me closely waiting for my signal. With their weapons in hand they stand ready. I move to a bush close to the tree, Klark said I should get as close as possible. Suddenly I hear a twig snap and my eyes darken, to my side Octavia had stepped on a branch I look up and the mountain man's head snaps down spotting her. I press the buttons as fast as I can before the rat could utter a word._

 _"NOW." I yell and all hell breaks loose._

 _The mountain man turns in a split second attempt reaching for his weapon but before he could aim Lugo, Lyra and Ira with their bows in hand shoot the invader and one of the arrows slits through the rope holding the mounon on the tree and he falls to the ground a short distance from me as he stands to turn away from me with his weapon in hand preparing to shoot his targets down I step from the inside of the bush and hit him on the back of his head before he could react. He falls groaning so I hit him again and this time, there was no resistance._

 _"We did it." Octavia exclaims and I give her a nasty glare._

 _"We didn't do anything, You almost got us killed. Your training hasn't been hard enough but that will change. I will teach you to properly walk the woods…the hard way. " I threaten and she takes a little step back Lincoln, of course, walks to her to offer comfort. Branwoda. (Fool.)_

 _"Sound the horn." Ira sounds the horn as Lugo and Lyra restrain the fallen mounon._

 _"Strip him of any weapons and let's go back to the village. We have a prize to show off."_

 ** _End of Indra's pov_**

"Wow that must have been intense." I exclaim after hearing about the hunt from Kane. He smiles gently holding his weapon close to his chest.

"I'm almost jealous of not being there." He chuckles and I smirk.

"What do you think will happen now?" he asks and I sighed.

"I don't know he will probably be interrogated…why?" I ask him and h shifts his weight from foot to foot.

"Do you think they'll torture him? You know the thousand cuts sentence?" he still doesn't answer and I rub the back of my neck.

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Here you go i hope you like it...it was a small chapter but it is better than nothing i still have to figure out the next one and i promise that one will be a little bigger. If you have any questions let me know...oh and the more reviews the faster the chapter will be posted muahahahahah


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own creativity and Oc's**

 **Sorry it took me a while to update...i was kinda busy with my second job...but if you are good and review ...maybe i wont take so long to post the next update. ;)**

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It was night time already Lexa's people lit the fires long before nightfall. By that time the trees look like charcoaled versions of their daytime selves our faces are aglow with flickering orange. A canopy of luminous stars materialized amongst the ocean of blackness above us it holds a singularity new to me the view from space was unique but now I can't decide which I prefer most.

"Klarke?" I hear someone call me from behind, I quickly turn to see Rylla accompanied by another woman close to the healer's tent. She signals me to approach.

"Are you ok? You look lost?" Rylla asked folding her arms, I glance at the other woman for a second and then answer.

"The view from down here is different and I was admiring it." A hint of a smile displayed itself on the corner of her lips.

"Did you really fell from the sky?" the woman beside her asked curiously and I chuckled.

"Is it that hard to believe?" I ask and she nods.

"Forgive my friend over here she's an unbeliever of many things" Rylla laughs and the other woman scoffs.

"This is Nerea kom Yujleda (broadleaf clan)." Rylla points to the side and the woman next to her nods. The woman was almost as tall as Rylla the real difference was in her clothing she wasn't wearing a fur and leather armor like Rylla her clothing was less heavy looking and more on the light side. Different shades of green covered her body, on her back a bow and quiver.

"Nerea this is Klark kom skaikru." Rylla introduced us the woman took a step forward extending her arm to me and I took it.

"Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine Klark kom skaikru." I nodded and she stepped back where she was a few seconds ago.

"Rylla told me of your plan to stop the attack on this village…I want to thank you for its success many of the people in this village are known to me. I'm glad the mounon's plan wasn't a success."

"The commander and I planned it together." I corrected

"Then I'll be sure to thank her as well." After that, she excused herself and left leaving me and Rylla

"I take it the commander didn't like the idea?" she asked and my head turned to her.

"What do you mean?" I ask curiously.

"Anya told me of your plan I just don't see the commander agreeing with it." She unfolds her arms turning her body to me.

"Getting an inside man was a clever idea but what you did here was reckless and highly risky. It could have failed miserably."

"But it didn't and we caught him so it worked…you sound just like her." She smirked and I blushed.

"Klark sometimes you have to concede a battle to win a war…" she continued

"She said that too…" her smirk grew wolfish.

"You never said which kru you were from," I ask

"I didn't?" she mocks sarcastically

"You breathe sarcasm like a real skaikru." I chuckle folding my arms across my chest

"Sarcasm?" her brow arched

"It's from the Greek, sarkasmos. To bite the lips. It means that you aren't really saying what you mean, but people will get your point. I invented it, Bartholomew named it." I puff my chest will pride.

"Well, if the village idiot named it, I'm sure it's a good thing." She concluded.

"There you go, you got it." I congratulated laughing

"Got what?"

"Sarcasm."

"No, I meant it."

"Sure you did." I snorted

"Is that sarcasm?" she asked amused.

"Irony, I think." I looked up and to the left thinking about the question

"What's the difference?" she asked.

"I haven't the slightest idea." I rub the back of my head.

"So you're being ironic now, right?" she asked fixing her belt

"No, I really don't know."

"Maybe you should ask the idiot." She mocked

"Now you've got it."

"What?" her eyebrow furrowed

"Sarcasm." We both laughed.

"You know Klark I read somewhere that sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt."

"That sounds like something Lexa would say." I tease and she leans closer.

"It is." She laughs and I shake my head a little.

"Did I mention I knew the commander when she was little?"

"You did? Wait …little? I thought she was born like that…all grown and brooding…" Rylla laughed all heartedly.

"I hate to shatter your previous idea of the commander but no she was born like all of us but her fate was already settled the second she stepped foot in this world. Her mother she…" Rylla suddenly went silent, her face protracted a look of guilt and sadness.

"What is it?" I inquired curiously.

"You must forgive me Klark but the commander's mother is not a delicate subject for a conversation." Something must have happened to her or something she did, Rylla's reaction before when mentioning Lexa's mother changed I wonder what happened.

"Ok, I understand…how often do you read?" I ask her trying to lighten the mood.

"Not often as I'd like, mostly when I'm in Polis…books are a rarity nowadays…"

"Polis? What is that?" I interrupt her

"Polis is our capital…it's a vast city where the commander lives." Rylla smiles at my interest.

"Once this war is over I'm sure the commander will talk to you about it. Also, there is a large library with books from most of our scavenger hunts…it goes back to our first commander. Who knows maybe I'll meet you there one day and we can get a drink or many." She laughed

"Can't wait, you still haven't told me where you come from."

"I was born west from here in the vast plains of the west. Allow me to reintroduce myself again my name is Rylla kom Ingranrona (plains riders' Kru)." She bowed.

"I was being serious before Klark you need to get your priorities straight some sacrifices are worth making. I knew it was all you, you are not the type to do what you are told…are you?" I swallow a breath how did she know? The muscles in my face tightened.

"Your lack of willingness to make sacrifices that can be turned into a weakness worth exploring…for your enemies." I exhaled a breath technically she is right.

"Lexa is a great commander because she's ruthless… that's how we'll win this war."

"That's wrong," I say and her brow furrows.

"That's war and you should have known that by now Klark, people die and sometimes there is nothing you can do TO STOP IT." She emphasized the last words.

"Maybe…but no one will stop me from trying…EVER." Her brow arched and I exhaled a breath stuck in my throat.

"Who would endure life if it were not for the hope of death?" her words hit me hard.

"I don't live so I can die…I know death comes and it's inevitable and when it comes I'll give it the fight of its life…there is no chance in hell I'll roll over and let it take me. " she chuckles amused.

"The commander's interest in you I well placed…"

"What do you mean?" I ask and her smug grew wolfish

"KLARK" I hear my name being called and I turn to the sound it was Anya she was by the war room's entrance she waved me to go her way.

"Go skai commander you are being summoned the destiny of the mountain men will most likely be decided in the morning…or not." I glanced back at her and her eyes were a different color not just because of the lack of sunlight but because of something else…her amused tone was gone…mentioning the mountain changed her mood. I approach Anya and there is a small line of blood on her face.

"What's that?" I ask reaching for it but she caught my hand half way and then I hear it.

Grunts and groans tore through me like a great shard of glass. I felt my eyes widen and pulse quicken, my heart thudding like a rock rattling in a box. I look back at her and she showed no emotion. It came again, desperate, terrified... human.

"What's going on down there?" I ask he there is no emotion coming from this grounder woman. The grunts and groans grow in sound and intensity the blood drained from my face before I was even aware of making a conscious decision my legs were pounding furiously down the stairs, my ears straining for more sounds, more clues as to where it had come from. I had no clue as to what I'd do when I got there, just that I had to get there and they were torturing him. They were not in the war room but on a room to the left, the entrance was guarded by two guards dressed in full grounder armor.

"Let me in," I tell them both. The shift their stance from foot to foot glancing at one another, I see the guard on my right exhale a breath.

"Let her pass," Lexa commands them both to stand aside for me to pass.

"I take no pleasure in taking you down. None. It's just necessary. You love to hurt and I can't heal my family with you around. Giving mercy is good until it is proven to hurt the innocent…" I hear the commander say to the bound mountain men as Ira and another grounder men pull him back to his feet. The room wasn't too big and there wasn't too much light, just a few candles on the wall. The air was still and the flames barely flickered. It was steady and bright enough to relieve the darkness of the room.

"Commander, what's going on?" I ask her and doesn't look back at me. Indra was inside and two more grounder soldiers. The two grounder males shackle the mountain men against the wall. There was stillness on both sides. If hatred was visible the air would have been scarlet. Then suddenly movement, so much force in every blow. Ira rained blows onto the spotter as if he meant to smash him into the ground.

"Noumou." ( _Enough_ ) Lexa instructs and they stop.

"I will ask you one more time…why are you here?" She asks tensely.

"I came to kill you all." His eyes flashed with disgust and anger much like lightning on a pitch black night.

"You are more talkative than Emerson, all he kept saying was Carl Emerson mount weather security detail." I mocked his tone. The beat up men looks at me with piercing eyes.

"You're Clarke…let me tell you that I truly appreciate the effort your friends are putting in the mountain…blood sweat and tears." He doubled himself up and burst into a loud harsh cackle of laughter. My blood boils, that was the breaking point of my patience. At that moment, I was blinded by a five-course serving of rage that tasted bitter, yet surprisingly satisfying. I reached out. I went to punch him in the face but the commander stopped me by grabbing my arm.

"Don't give him the satisfaction Klark." The commander of the twelve clans appealed to my self-control and I relented, surprisingly.

"Your plan failed you were sent here to provide coordinates for a missile attack am I right?" she asks passing a little back and forth. The man says nothing.

"My warriors were fortunate enough to catch you before you could cause harm and I must admit that it would be hard to recover from but… we would have risen stronger than ever…it is who we are."

I look to my right where Indra was and there was a table with the mountain men's stuff. His body vest was there, his rifle, a backpack, a radio, an ear plug and some maps. I look at her and she notices my curious looks at his stuff and nods allowing me to approach.

"Is this all of his stuff?"

"Everything he had with him…yes." She answers I go through his stuff trying to find something anything at all. I see a map with an area circled in red most likely this village. I glance at the mountain men and I see he is looking my way. But I continue to go through his equipment. I reach for his backpack and I glance again back at him and I almost see him stiffen. Why does he keep looking my way? Is there anything here he doesn't want me to find.

"Nice piece." I grab his rifle and check it out. A customized sniper rifle very futuristic. I take the magazine and check for the "extra" bullet and put it back in the magazine. Whitman eyes never left me. Everyone else's eyes did the same. My eyes meet Lexa's and her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword so I look away from her.

"What's in the backpack Whitman? You keep looking at it…it must be important…" I ask stepping back towards the table. This time, I look thoroughly his balance changes he is now holding his weight on his left side. He winces between breaths no longer standing up but kneeling down on one knee, I guess the beating as got to him. I take the radio and turn it back on. I keep going through his stuff and find a few extra magazines, a flash light, a few frag grenades, face paint, range finder, pistol, some food rations and a strange looking pen. It was the size of a small flash light but lean as a pen. Whitman's shoulders stiffen. A small white light starts to slowly flicker…like a steady heartbeat. I put the small pen on the table and grab the radio.

" _ **Whitman, this is tower do you read me?**_ " A male voice asks from the other side.

" _ **What's your status? Have you reached Cobalt? Is Eagle one a go? I repeat is Eagle one a go?**_ " Static echoes throughout the room.

"What's Eagle one? Is that a code? And for what?" I ask him and his jaws clench not answering me. I look at Lexa and her jaw clenches the two grounder men shift their weight from foot to foot. I look back at Whitman and he swallows a breath of bloody saliva.

" _ **Whitman status report…do you copy?**_ " the voice asks again and then static echoes throughout the room.

" ** _Whitman Is Eagle one a go? I repeat is Eagle one a go_?** " The voice insists and then nothing the connection goes silent.

 **A beep.**

A sound comes from the table with the mountain men's equipment…I notice that the light is now yellow and the flickering is now more constant. He notices it too and stands from his knee.

Every pair of eyes inside the room is now set on the captured mountain men, he continues to struggle to break free from his bonds but then he suddenly stops and starts laughing.

"You think this is funny?" I snap. He glares at me with hatred in his cruel dull eyes.

"You are an extremely stupid girl. Aren't you?" rage filled my belly. I felt my ears getting hot. I glare at him then spat out

"HOW DARE YOU?" He sneers at me then laughs only adding fuel to my wrath.

"You take my friends, keep them inside that mountain and bleed them dry for their blood and you think this is a joke?"

"It's us or you…and guess who's going to win?" he laughs harder my knuckles turned white from clenching my fists too tight.

Ira takes over and starts to beat him again and again until more blood comes dripping from his mouth.

"Enough…" the commander growls Ira steps away he glances over at me but then looks down when the commander approaches the mountain men and kneels down close to him.

"Enjoy these last moments while you can because at first light you'll suffer death by a thousand cuts." She whispered close to him, his head was down but he continued to mask his smug.

"Not if you are all dead before then…" his words send a chill up my spine I guess soldiers are trained to resist capture as much as they can but his confidence is almost to reassuring like he knows something is going to happen.

 **Another beep.**

I look at the table my heart almost gives out…there is now three lights lit on the pen…the first one that was white, the second that was yellow and now another dark yellow light…what the hell is this thing?

 **OMG**

"It's a beacon…a tracking beacon." I exclaim realizing what this was all about, he was stalling and this was his contingency plan. The maniac laughs and laughs. "Too late Clarke and now you are all going to die…"

"Not if I can help it…" I grab the pen and run up the stairs past everyone as fast as I could. Anya was guarding the door and I almost bump into her.

"Watch where you are going…goufa." She growls but I can't deal with that now we exchange looks but she notices something is wrong as do the many grounders walking around at that time but before she could ask I turn away, grab the nearest horse and gallop as far as I could from the village. I glance at the pen in my hand and another light was lit, an orange one. There was still one more light to be lit and it meant that I was running out of time. I take the bow and attach the pen to an arrow and aim it away from the village. The adrenalin flows through my veins like a raging waterfall… Every color is brighter, every noise louder, every stranger a cause to make my heart beat more fiercely still.

 _ **A third beep. Shit, I'm almost out of time.**_

I hope I'm as far away from the village as I can. With nothing to guide this arrow but my hope to preventing unnecessary bloodshed, I loosen the arrow and it flows away at high speed. I turn and lead the horse away from the site but a few seconds later...there was an enormous explosion. It was as though a fist of orange flame had decided to punch its way out of the heart of the forest. The explosion creates a massive shockwave that pierces through everything in every direction. Almost feels like a heart quake as the ground shakes after impact. The untamed power reverberated and echoed across the green landscape. My attempt to avoid the impact fails, it hits me hard and hard enough that it knocks me down from the horse the poor animal flees in a panic. Slowly I tried to get up but quickly realized how futile it was when I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. A sharp pain lanced through my head and colorful spots flashed in front of my eyes, it felt like my whole body had been beaten and every movement caused some muscle or bone to ache. Regardless, I needed to get out of here. Wincing In pain I started to get back on my feet only to fall back down again. My ears are buzzing, I feel dizzy, can't concentrate, luckily I can still feel my legs and my shoulder hurts. I lay on my back. As I desperately try to diagnose myself I see a shadow hovering over me.

"No, not yet…you are not ready…" I hear a voice I couldn't tell if it were male or female my ears were still ringing from the shockwave. I try to move but it was a big mistake…more pain runs across my body and I hiss in pain.

"Who are you?"

"Your time as built to this Klark kom skaikru, your path however crooked lead you straight to here. Our work, yours and mine must soon commence, come find me when your spirit is ready ...when you find your truer self." The shadow turns and leaves fading back into the shadows.

"Wait...i need h…" I hear voices again far away but before I could do anything my consciousness begins to fade.

"Clarke…"

"Clarke…"

I hear someone call but the light fades and everything goes black.

* * *

That's it people let me know what you think and so you know I'm looking for a beta if you are interested send me a PM.


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